He couldn't let them keep chanting. Who knew what might happen next? Lu Yuan drove his foot into the ground and charged.
The two Heretics chanting with their heads bowed looked up at Lu Yuan's approach. Strange smiles tugged at their mouths, as if his charge were a joke beneath their notice. They paid him no mind. Clearly, they were confident.
What happened next took them both by surprise. The instant Lu Yuan reached for them, the Protective Barriers of flesh and bone around their bodies flared. Their peaceful aura turned savage. Rotted chunks of flesh studded with splintered bone burst outward like a hedgehog's spines, ready to impale his hand.
But his hand was not impaled. Lu Yuan ignored their Protective Barriers entirely. What had looked so fearsome crumpled like paper in his grasp.
His hand passed through without resistance and seized the man on the left, who was still chanting with his head bowed. Lu Yuan raised his other fist high, then brought it crashing down.
The first punch shattered the shell of bone spikes and flesh around the man.
With the second, Lu Yuan smashed through his head and body as easily as a block of tofu. The man still wore the same devout expression, as though he had never realized what was happening. His skull split apart, and Lu Yuan's fist sank into it, crushing it completely.
When Lu Yuan pulled his fist free, fragments of bone came with it, along with a mixture of red, yellow, and white fluid.
Only then did Lu Yuan become certain of one thing. In this world where sanity reigned supreme, his close-combat attacks dealt far more damage than usual. Before, he had merely thought his body was somewhat stronger than other people's. Two punches had proved otherwise. His physical