Shell-bearing Species

Ye Yan slowly opened the pages of the Sherlock Holmes Casebook. The moment his fingertips touched the paper, a cool sensation spread from them throughout his body.

The words on the pages began to shift and rearrange, turning into a series of familiar scenes.

The confusion he'd felt when he first crossed over, meeting Holmes at Scotland Yard, the terror of being hunted by cultists, his determination to rescue people aboard the Saint Helier...

A faint light flickered to life in his heart.

Though small, its glow was remarkably clear, like a lighthouse on a dark sea.

His former self stood once more at the crossroads of memory. Every choice was clear as day, including the moment just now in court when he'd nearly wavered and made excuses for Scarface.

Ye Yan felt a sudden realization spread through his mind, and the clamor that had been plaguing him gradually subsided.

"So that's how it is..."

He murmured softly. The words on the page became a bright little path before his eyes.

Following that path with his gaze, he saw the ginkgo tree in his hometown, his mother's back as she bustled about in the kitchen, and the desk lamp he always forgot to turn off.

The images were so vivid that his eyes grew warm.

He wanted to go home.

He wanted to go home as Ye Yan.

That realization was like a clear mirror, reflecting the softest place in his heart with perfect precision.

If he helped a criminal go free just to get home, it would be like trying to scoop up clear water with a mud-caked hand. Even if he got what he wanted, it would already be irreparably tainted.

Ye Yan gently closed the book.

He took a deep breath and realized that the thoughts that had been charging wildly through his mind had quieted. It was like the sea after a storm, with only gentle ripples left behind.

[Congratulations, Administrator. Your Shell-Crossing Disease has been cured.]

"Why did I contract this... Shell-Crossing Disease?"

Ye Yan rubbed the book's spine and asked in confusion, "Was I infected when I summoned the spirit before?"

He already knew that souls could fall ill, but he couldn't have just contracted a disease for no reason. Just like a human body getting sick, there had to be a source.

[Summoning a spirit only has an effect if it fails.]

The candles in the Bookhouse flickered steadily.

[We suspect you came into contact with something strange earlier.]

Ye Yan furrowed his brow and thought it over.

His memories began to rewind bit by bit, gradually bringing the bloody night back into focus. The cultists' swollen bodies, the Abomination's hard shell, and...

"It was that Abomination!" His eyes flew wide, and his Adam's apple bobbed. "I was affected by the Principle of the Cup back then. I had an uncontrollable appetite and almost ate its remains..."

His words abruptly cut off. A certain sticky sensation seemed to return to the base of his tongue.

A rustling came from the shadows between the bookshelves, as if countless pages were whispering to one another.

[Just as we thought.]

The Bookhouse's voice held a note of sudden understanding.

[The residue left a hidden influence on you. When you summoned a spirit, that influence was awakened, infecting your Soul Essence.]

Ye Yan shuddered at the thought and instinctively wiped his mouth. His crazed actions that night seemed utterly unbelievable now. He'd actually wanted to eat such a disgusting creature.

But what was even more horrifying was that, for one moment, he'd truly thought it tasted "delicious."

"Is that influence still inside me?" Ye Yan asked.

He didn't want to carry around an unstable time bomb like that. What if it flared up again when his life was on the line...?

[Please rest assured, Administrator.]

The sound of turning pages was a gentle reassurance.

[Since you have recovered, the influence has been completely eliminated.]

Hearing the Bookhouse's reply, Ye Yan let out a long breath of relief.

Then a powerful curiosity about that strange Abomination took hold of him.

What exactly was it?

It could make him lose control while it was alive, and even after it died, it had left a pitfall inside him.

Ye Yan rubbed his chin, then raised a hand and summoned his Travelogue of the Homeless.

"Thinking about it won't help. Time to write!"

He opened the book and, using his mind as a pen, wrote about his recent experiences solving cases on a fresh page.

From meeting Billy to summoning Daphne's spirit.

[Your travelogue records the trail of a Hour. You have obtained a Coordinate Mark: [Void Realm]]

Another ribbon appeared inside the Luck Compass, intertwining with the ribbons of the two mysterious Coordinate Marks from before.

This filled Ye Yan with delight.

There was a golden house in books, and a beautiful woman in books.

The old saying had been right after all.

Ye Yan's lips had just begun to curve upward when the Bookhouse's voice suddenly rang out in his mind.

[Administrator, the second chapter of your travelogue has reached the required length. Would you like to submit it to obtain knowledge?]

"Can I choose the knowledge myself?"

[Yes.]

The candlelight dimmed slightly.

[But consider carefully. The knowledge you choose may not be the knowledge most suited to you.]

"I'm sure." Ye Yan nodded.

[What would you like to know about, Administrator?]

"I want to know what that Abomination that affected me was."

[It was a Shell-bearing Species, Administrator.]

The Bookhouse's voice grew somewhat low.

[They appeared before human civilization...]

From the Bookhouse's explanation, Ye Yan learned about the Shell-bearing Species.

The Shell-bearing Species were intelligent beings that had appeared before human civilization. They resembled insects and consisted of many different clans.

The Abomination Ye Yan had encountered was likely a degenerate subspecies of the Sickle-Tooth Clan.

Among the Shell-bearing Species, this clan was renowned for its vast intelligence and complex toothed structures. Their sickle-shaped false shells were one of their defining physical traits.

Ye Yan frowned.

"So the Shell-bearing Species left something inside humans, hoping to rise again when the opportunity came. Is that why the illness affecting Soul Essence is called Shell-Crossing Disease?"

The thought that he might turn into an insect made him a little uncomfortable.

[You may understand it that way, Administrator.]

The Bookhouse confirmed his guess.

[The Shell-bearing Species have vanished, but they have not died. They endure within.]

Ye Yan sighed deeply.

At last, he understood why Darwin in this world hadn't said in On the Origin of Species that humans had evolved from apes, but instead claimed that humans descended from insects.

Humans in his world couldn't revert to apes, but humans in this world really could revert to insects.

Insectification Disease.

It was a hereditary disease that humans in this world could contract, and its symptoms included developing insect-like traits.

In this world, On the Origin of Species was listed as a forbidden book. It had been banned by various countries before publication, and its circulation among the public was prohibited. This was not only because it rejected the doctrine that God had created humanity, but also because it proposed that humans originated from insects.

After all, the Church in this world not only held secular power but also possessed extraordinary abilities. How could it allow a book to undermine its sacred authority?

Even in Ye Yan's original world, people of that era had struggled to accept the idea that humans and apes shared a common ancestor. How much harder would it be to accept the shocking claim that humans and insects shared the same origins?

Still, the theory had its supporters.

Even the British Empire, like the one in his world, applied the idea of "survival of the fittest" to society, claiming that poverty and colonialism were forms of "natural elimination of the inferior."

This was also where the Poor Law's "principle of inferior treatment" came from, though this interpretation was clearly a distortion and perversion of "survival of the fittest."

The degree of distortion was on a par with the line from Flower Country: "Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat the myriad things as straw dogs."

Ye Yan shook his head. He remembered the reverent expression on Watson's face when the doctor had secretly handed him that forbidden book, as well as the unmistakable regret in the Bookhouse's voice when it had refused to accept it.

"The knowledge contained in this book is extremely forward-thinking, but its author's limited perspective held it back."

"What a pity."

"The author of this book was a true scholar, but he never managed to obtain true knowledge."