In the ink-black darkness, the terror of being "lost" was everywhere.
Fortunately, Zhang Ming had spent long enough in this hellish place to develop some immunity. He murmured, "Even if a so-called remnant soul emerged from a corpse, it wouldn't be the original 'me' anymore, would it?"
Stone Mama fell silent for a moment. Remembering the once vast and majestic Black Tortoise, and now being nothing more than a little black stone, Stone Mama felt somewhat despondent. "Of course not."
"I am me, and Black Tortoise was Black Tortoise... even with similar memories, we aren't the same individual anymore."
"At the instant Black Tortoise was on the verge of death, it deeply realized the importance of communication, so it gave me its Spirit Language ability and some of its memories."
"The importance of communication..." Zhang Ming was rather speechless.
"At the same time, it gave me powerful survival abilities. Perhaps, at that moment, it had a lingering obsession with staying alive..."
"So that's it. You're essentially a tiny offshoot of Black Tortoise." Zhang Ming understood. "Seen that way, a transcendent being's final obsession at the moment of death has something in common with the Blue Crystal People's last wishes."
"The remains of transcendent beings... really are something governed by the mind."
Stone Mama seemed to remember something and sneered. "Now I remember. You're only borrowing a Demon God Rule."
"If you die, you won't leave any transcendent remains. You might even be corrupted by the Demon God Rule and turn into something that threatens the world! You don't think you'll become some guardian of humanity after you die, do you?"
"Guard humanity? I just want to laze around. Whoever wants to protect them can do it. If I die, I couldn't be bothered with what happens to humanity." Zhang Ming