I woke up to find myself as the villain's older sister.

Chapter 174 q（≧▽≦q）

"Since there are no problems, come on, Yiyi, Xiaorou, and Xiaoze, take this."

When the mermaid princess saw that Uncle Shang wanted to end the conversation, she wanted to ask a few more questions, but when she saw what he took out, she wisely shut her mouth.

"What is this?" Yun Qingyi picked up a shell-shaped gemstone that looked like crystal from Uncle Shang's hand and asked curiously.

Yun Qingrou and Ji Zhaoze also took one each, their eyes revealing interest.

"Hehe, you don't understand, do you? This is the room key." The mermaid princess looked at the puzzled faces of the group and laughed smugly. Finally, there was something that the seniors didn't understand.

"A key?" Yun Qingyi played with the gem in her hand, feeling its cool touch, and said, "Do all the rooms in this Mermaid Palace have a key like this?"

Upon hearing this, Uncle Shang chuckled and shook his head: "Of course not. In the entire Mermaid Palace, apart from the main hall, only the top floor of the other palaces has such a key. For the other rooms, everyone sets up their own protective spells on the rooms or doors to prevent others from entering."

Upon hearing this, a thought flashed through Yun Qingyi's mind. She looked at Uncle Shang and said seemingly casually, "Hmm, it seems this restriction is even more powerful than this gem. Once it's set up, no one can enter. But if this gem is accidentally lost and someone finds it, the risks would be much greater..."

"Hahaha." Something must have made Uncle Shang laugh. After a few laughs, he slowly said, "Yi girl, this Heart Stone is not so simple."

"And this forbidden technique, while indeed much safer than the spells of other sea creatures, still has many hidden dangers. It can't be compared to the Heart-shaped Stone at all."

"Uh... are there any hidden dangers?" Yun Qingyi looked surprised.

Uncle Shang thought for a moment and said, "Rather than calling it a hidden danger, it's more accurate to say it's a drawback brought about by the curse."

"What kind of drawbacks?" Yun Qingyi asked cautiously.

"Actually, it's nothing much. It's just that the merfolk who set up the forbidden spells not only have to hand over a certain amount of merit or treasures to their clan every once in a while, but also have to clean up the forbidden spells and reset them regularly."

However, setting up the protective spell would take at least three days. During those three days, the room would be completely undefended, which would undoubtedly be very dangerous for the merfolk.

"Hmm..." Yun Qingyi ignored the rest and went straight to the point: "Uncle Shang, since redoing the restrictions takes a lot of time, why redo them at all? Isn't it better to just use the old ones?"

"It's to prevent the merfolk from encountering unforeseen circumstances, especially when the forbidden laws are still in effect," the merfolk princess replied, taking over Yun Qingyi's words and answering for Uncle Shang.

Upon hearing this, Yun Qingyi frowned slightly.

It's not hard to guess that the unexpected situation Uncle Shang mentioned was the accidental death of a merman, which is pretty much the same answer she had just guessed.

The things they encountered when they first entered the room were likely forbidden spells left behind by the merfolk.

Sure enough, after the mermaid princess finished speaking, Uncle Shang continued, "The longer the forbidden spells of our mermaid clan are set up, the stronger they become. Therefore, in order to prevent our clansmen from being harmed by the forbidden spells in their rooms after they die, we usually clean up the forbidden spells in the rooms regularly and rearrange them."

"I see." Yun Qingyi had a look of sudden realization on her face, thinking to herself, "So that's how it is."

The things they encountered in the first room they entered were forbidden spells left behind by the merfolk in that room.

If what the mermaid princess said about the disaster is true, then the entire mermaid race was killed at the same time.

According to the timeline, it has been more than a thousand years since then.

With over a thousand years of accumulated experience, no wonder it's so terrifying.

Thinking about what happened in the first room, Yun Qingyi seemed to be deep in thought.