What exactly is the "limb grafting ceremony"? Buck was utterly confused, unable to find any relevant knowledge about it in the fragmented memories he desperately tried to piece together. But right now, this was his only hope for survival.

  Boom... As soon as he chose "Yes," the dark red, eerie arm suddenly erupted with a massive flow of information, surging into his brain. The impact on his soul made him dizzy once again, the world spinning around him. In an instant, the arm vanished from his hand—it seemed to have fused with his body!

  [Limbs grafting ceremony completed, obtained arm: Divine Corpse's Hand]

  [Divine Corpse's Hand I: Requires consumption of an indefinite amount of spiritual or life energy to activate.]

  Buck was stunned, looking at his hand. On the panel in his consciousness, there was now a peculiar ability listed. "Divine Corpse's Hand... I see." He murmured softly, slowly raising his palm. With the information that had just flooded his mind, he quickly learned how to use this ability, but it wasn’t the simple “limb grafting” he had originally expected.

  At this moment, the monster had walked right up to Buck, who was sitting helplessly on the ground. The monster bared its sharp teeth, and a foul, rancid stench filled the air. Its enormous body cast a shadow that completely enveloped Buck. The creature looked at this person and determined that he had completely lost his will to survive. Excitedly, it extended its sharp claws, lunging toward this "lamb to the slaughter."

  Suddenly, the monster froze, blinking in disbelief, as if questioning whether it was seeing things. Because it saw a huge red arm suddenly stretch out from behind the seemingly weak "lamb"!

  The monster didn’t even have time to react before its head was tightly gripped by the dark red-patterned palm. Buck stared at this scene blankly, instinctively squeezing his hand—Pff! The monster’s head exploded like a watermelon, brain matter and blood splattering everywhere. Its massive body fell backward with a crash, raising a cloud of dust.

  However, Buck felt no joy from killing the enemy. Just as the arm crushed the monster’s head, a sharp pain suddenly pierced through his chest, and a wave of weakness washed over him like a tide. Only then did he notice another two bars marked with values on the panel in his consciousness:

  [Life Energy: 20/120]

  [Spiritual Energy: 0/100]

  The spiritual energy bar was instantly drained as the arm activated, followed by the life energy bar dropping like a flood, leaving only 20 points. In that instant, Buck felt as though every ounce of strength had been drained from his body, plunging him into extreme exhaustion. Despite no external wounds, he felt that even a child’s gentle kick could easily send him to his grave.

  "So, this 'life energy' is just like a 'health bar.' Once it's depleted, I die immediately!" Buck thought bitterly. From the information he had received, he now understood that through this strange ceremony, he had transformed into an extraordinary being in this world... but one on the brink of death.

  Indeed, this world was full of mysterious forces, but dealing with the unknown often came at a heavy cost. The Church strictly prohibited any unknown ceremonies because even if successful, no one knew what kind of terrifying things they might attract. Now, Buck had personally experienced this—black smoke, like a rolling mist, rose from the void around him and slowly coalesced into a grotesque and nauseating phantom.

  It resembled a mass of filthy mud draped in a tattered black cloak, with a head that was nothing more than a massive, abyss-like mouth, continuously emitting the eerie, haunting growls of a hungry creature. Hunger... hunger... eternal hunger! Buck himself could truly feel that maddening hunger, and this endless torment would follow him for the rest of his life, like a shadow.

  [Spirit Possession by Ritual: The Devourer]

  This, then, was the "cost" he had incurred by performing the limb grafting ceremony! Worse still, the hungry spirit seemed to have noticed Buck’s weakness and, driven by its insatiable hunger, it attempted to completely consume the last remnants of his life energy! Its grotesque mouth, like an insidious phantom, pressed against Buck’s back, sucking something out of him. Each time it moved, Buck’s life energy dropped by 1 point...

  "Damn it!" Buck nearly went mad. He had just escaped death’s door, only to find himself facing another kind of death! As he watched his life energy slowly drain away, his breath became more erratic, and he grew weaker and weaker. Even though the shadow of death was closing in, the terrifying hunger still clung to him, filling his eyes with blood and pushing him to the brink of madness.

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  In his dazed state, he saw the massive monster’s corpse lying in front of him. Driven by hunger, he instinctively reached out and grabbed the monster’s arm, biting down hard on the sharp claws.

  An unexpected thing happened! The prompt panel in his mind flashed, causing Buck’s heart to skip a beat as his eyes slowly regained clarity.

  [Found Monster’s Arm, would you like to perform the limb grafting ceremony?]

  [Hint: Consuming the freshly killed monster’s arm can absorb its life energy.]

  In the midst of fate, there seemed to be an invisible force pushing him step by step towards the abyss. But at this moment, he had no other choice; he could only dive into this ritual once again! “Yes! Make me swallow it, let me live!”

  The demon monster's arm turned into an intangible form, merging into Buck's body. At the same time, a surge of life energy, like a raging torrent, flooded into his exhausted body!

  [Devoured Demon Arm, Absorbed Life Energy, Maximum +200.]

  Buck was overjoyed to discover that his "health bar" not only returned to its original value but even exceeded the original 120-point maximum!

  [Life Energy: 220/320] [Mana: 20/100] [Limb Ritual Completed, Acquired Arm: Demon Creature’s Arm] [Demon Creature’s Arm I: Requires 10 Mana or Life Energy to Activate.]

  At this moment, Buck was fully immersed in the wonderful feeling of life energy flooding his body, with no time to care about the newly acquired arm's ability. However, this joy did not last long. Soon, he had to face the price of the limb ritual once again!

  Another cloud of black mist, like lightning, rushed from the void into reality, stabbing into his eyes at an incredibly fast pace. Buck immediately screamed in pain, rolling on the ground in agony. “My eyes!” A sharp pain radiated from his eyeballs, and blood tears began to pour out — this time, it was an evil spirit residing in his eyes!

  [Ritual Evil Spirit Possession: The Observer]

  ...

  Buck did not know how long he had been lying in the desolate valley. It wasn't until the pain in his eyes faded, his life energy slowly restored to full, and the tormenting hunger returned that he struggled to sit up. With his now slightly altered eyes, he looked around. The dark valley seemed somewhat clearer to him, but some vague, monstrous figures in the distance made his spine shiver. It seemed that other demon monsters were slowly approaching!

  Gritting his teeth, he turned and ran desperately toward the other end of the valley. As he ran, he struggled to use his chaotic mind to try to make sense of the connection between his abilities and the ritual. Preliminary judgment showed that the life energy was probably his "health bar," which would normally recover by a small amount every minute. Mana, on the other hand, seemed like the "blue bar" — this energy came from the evil spirits summoned by the ritual. He noticed that his Mana had recovered by 20 points, thanks to satisfying the "Devourer" evil spirit's hunger.

  According to fragmented memories and newly acquired knowledge, people in this world who were supernatural beings fought using Mana. However, he seemed a bit different...

  While stumbling and running, Buck was in a rush, and just after crossing a low ridge in the valley, a massive cyan monster suddenly appeared in his view! The demon, seemingly having smelled the scent of a human, immediately lunged toward Buck, its movements swift as lightning!

  Buck’s pupils involuntarily contracted. Strangely, he saw that a "health bar" had appeared above the monster's head. "Is that its life energy?" he realized, understanding that the evil spirit residing in his eyes, "The Observer," seemed to have brought him some benefit... While he still didn’t know what troubles this evil spirit would bring in the future, for now, he knew that this green demon monster had 200 points of life energy!

  So that's how it works... In the blink of an eye, Buck suddenly understood what had just happened. The dark red arm had caused 200 points of damage to the monster by draining 100 points of Mana and 100 points of life energy, which was why it had been crushed to death!

  "Since that's the case..." He instinctively wanted to summon that terrifying red arm again, but a sudden sharp feeling of palpitations gripped him, and terrifying whispers seemed to roar from every cell in his body. They were warning him not to do it...

  Buck broke out in a cold sweat, instantly realizing that something was wrong. He quickly checked the prompt in his mind and saw that the descriptions of those arms had some key new information.

  [God's Corpse's Hand I: Requires an indefinite amount of Mana or Life Energy to activate, Cooldown Time: 60 minutes.] [Demon Creature’s Arm I: Requires 10 Mana or Life Energy to activate, Cooldown Time: 3 seconds.]

  "There's even a cooldown?" Buck’s heart sank. The ability of the God's Corpse’s Hand was still in a dim state. This powerful arm was likely the manifestation of some high-level mysterious power, and with his current physical state, he couldn’t use it continuously.

  At that moment, the demon monster’s sharp claws reached out toward his body. Buck instinctively raised his hand to block!

  The sharp claws instantly tore away 100 points of his life energy, ripping several bloody wounds across his arms and body! The excruciating pain of his body being torn apart nearly made Buck faint. But he endured the pain and didn’t forget to fight back. Just as the demon monster's claws struck him, another identical cyan claw materialized from his back and ruthlessly stabbed into the demon’s chest!