Desolate Stone Garden

Insect Records was a monumental work that spanned two centuries.

In the original world, Fabre began writing at the age of fifty-five. It took him nearly forty years to complete all ten volumes of Insect Records, and he continued revising it until shortly before his death at ninety-two.

His work on it spanned nearly his entire scientific career. It was truly an insect epic forged with his life.

Ye Yan didn't know what had become of the Fabre in this world. He only knew that the man had published a paper in the Annals of Natural Science and then vanished without a trace.

He had assumed that, like Darwin, the scholar had violated some taboo in his work and been secretly imprisoned. But when he opened Insect Records to the first page and read the preface, he realized he had been completely wrong.

"People prefer to investigate death because they fear it; I explore life because I love it."

At the very beginning of Insect Records, Fabre declared his opposition to the laboratory anatomists.

This Fabre was much more radical than the one in the original world.

Ye Yan thought.

He shook his head lightly and continued reading.

"I resigned from my teaching post and set out on a naval exploration vessel as its naturalist. In the end, I found a secluded island off the coast of the New Continent that suited my heart's desire."

In the latter half of the preface, Fabre recounted in detail how, in the laboratory he had built with his own hands, he observed and recorded insect behavior, then transformed scattered field observations into systematic scientific experiments.

Ye Yan only skimmed the discussion of experimental methods before moving on.

What drew his attention most was the description of the island.

"This is a barren land that would make even the hardiest farmer shake his head. But to me, it is a paradise beyond my wildest dreams, for it is the perfect home for insects.

I have named it Desolate Stone Garden..."

Ye Yan was a little surprised when he read this.

In this world, Desolate Stone Garden wasn't in Provence in southern France, but on some secluded island off the coast of the New Continent.

From landowner to island owner.

It seemed this world's Fabre was much wealthier.

After finishing the preface, Ye Yan began reading the main text. Time slipped by with the rustle of turning pages. Night soon fell, and his fingers reached the book's final page.

"Phew—"

Ye Yan breathed out softly.

He had spent over an hour reading all ten observation notes in the first volume of Insect Records, and felt he had gained far more than he'd expected.

Like the original, the first volume described the habits of insects such as scarab beetles, cicadas, praying mantises, and bees.

There wasn't much to say about the things he already knew.

The important part was this.

Fabre disagreed with the era's prevailing theory of "insect instinct." He proposed that insects possessed "discernment," and included the Shell-bearing Species in his research.

He also described a particularly notable case.

It was the Shell-bearing Species from the Sickle-Tooth Clan that Ye Yan had killed a few months earlier, later named the "Sickle Strange Insect" by the Research Institute.

This was an incredibly bold move.

With the exiled scholar's fate as a warning, all scholars treated the Shell-bearing Species as a taboo subject.

Most of them studied the Shell-bearing Species in secret. Even when publishing academic papers, they limited themselves to the creatures' habits and abilities, not daring to venture into other areas.

Yet in Insect Records, Fabre boldly put forward his hypothesis without the slightest attempt to avoid the subject.

"All living things have a deep desire to be born. It is the most primitive instinct of any living creature.

"Yet the Sickle Strange Insect defies this instinct, forcibly suppressing its growth and remaining inside its host. It knows that if it is born and leaves the liquid, it will die.

"This is no longer mere discernment. It is an expression of intelligence."

In this world, claiming that the Shell-bearing Species possessed intelligence was an extremely bold statement. Such a view could easily be interpreted as tacit support for Darwin's theory that "humans and insects share a common origin," inviting fierce condemnation from traditionalists.

No wonder this book was also classified as forbidden. There's no way something like this could be allowed to spread among the public.

Ye Yan sighed inwardly.

He slowly closed Insect Records, then felt a raised mark on the back of the cover beneath his fingertips.

He turned the book over.

Along the edge of the hard back cover, a line of gray French cursive was just barely visible:

"À un jeune homme qui a découvert de nouvelles espèces.

—Jean Henri Insecte Fabre"

"Dedicated to the young man who discovered new species.

—Jean Henri Insecte Fabre"

Ye Yan sprang to his feet. "Th-this is?!"

He had never imagined that the book Holmes had given him would bear a personal dedication written by Fabre himself.

Amid his excitement, Ye Yan immediately realized something else.

The copy of Insect Records in his hands could be named!

Holding down his excitement, Ye Yan closed the bookstore. Clutching Insect Records, he carried it into the Samsara Bookstore.

[Welcome back, Administrator.]

"It's been a long time, Sam, Sara." Ye Yan smiled and greeted the bookstore, then asked, "Could I trouble you to prepare a desk and a chair for me?"

[Of course, Administrator.]

As soon as Sam and Sara finished speaking, a wide desk and an armchair appeared out of thin air before Ye Yan.

He sat down with the book in hand.

As Ye Yan ran his fingers over the writing on the cover, a prompt appeared in his mind.

[Would you like to name Insect Records?]

"Yes."

The Pen of Surface and Interior manifested in the bookstore, its tip hovering over the cover of Insect Records.

With a few quick strokes, it completed the naming.

[Insect Records]

[Category: Tier-One Book (Incomplete)]

["Instinct, evolution, transformation—only through forgetting can one glimpse the truth of life." —Entomologist]

[Aspects: Moth, Guidance]

"Huh, there's a new Principle?"

Curious, Ye Yan focused his consciousness on the description of the Doctrine of Moth in the prompt.

The Doctrine of Moth represented change and chaos, intuition and whimsy, yearning and seeking, passion and nature. It was irrational, ever-shifting, and elusive.

Forgetting was one of its manifestations.

The once-ordinary black book had suddenly become extraordinary.

When Ye Yan opened it, a rustling sound came from between the pages, as though countless insect legs were scuttling among the lines of text.

The word "Abomination" throughout the book had also been replaced with the more accurate term "Shell-bearing Species."

[Administrator, the Insect Records you just named bears a hidden mark of power. The force of your power is washing over it, and the mark is now spreading.]

"What?"

The bookstore's prompt startled Ye Yan.

He hurriedly looked at Insect Records in his hands and saw Fabre's dedication on the back cover gradually change from a muted gray to a striking blue.

[Your naming has caused a certain possibility in an entomologist's life to veer off course. You have gained Soul Essence: Lantern.]

[Vision, perception, inspiration—all three are gifts of radiance.]

The prompt suddenly sounded in Ye Yan's mind.

At the same time, a guiding silver thread quietly extended from the Luck Compass. Its point of origin snaked off into the distance, disappearing onto a fog-shrouded island.

That was this world's Desolate Stone Garden.