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

Chapter 172 (☆▽☆)

“Except for the lack of fins on their tails and bodies, they are exactly the same as us mermaids. Their tails are two long, stick-like limbs called legs.”

Even as he said this, Uncle Shang's expression remained one of disbelief.

"Has Uncle Shang seen that race before?" Yun Qingyi asked.

"Haha, to say I've actually seen this in person is an understatement," Uncle Shang said. "I've only been fortunate enough to see it in murals in the ancient sea region."

It's the ancient sea region again. What exactly is this ancient sea region? There are still traces of human activity here.

"Uncle Shang has been to the ancient sea territory?!" This time it was the mermaid princess who spoke.

"I went there when I was young, which was several hundred years ago, before you were even born," Uncle Shang said with a smile.

Upon hearing this, the mermaid princess's eyes lit up. She grabbed Uncle Shang's arm and said coquettishly, "Uncle Shang, what exactly is the Ancient Sea Territory? I'm curious, so please tell us."

"Alright, alright." Unable to resist the mermaid princess's persistent tugging and coaxing, Uncle Shang said helplessly, "I'll tell you, I'll tell you. If you don't tell me something, I'm afraid you'll pull my old bones apart."

"Hehe." The mermaid princess chuckled, satisfied with the answer. She reluctantly let go of Uncle Shang's hand and stood obediently to the side, looking like she was ready to listen attentively at any moment.

Seeing this, the others also adopted a serious and curious expression.

Uncle Shang lowered his head and pondered for a moment, as if recalling something, before slowly saying, "Actually, even I, an old man, can't quite explain what kind of place it is. Since we discovered this place, our Merfolk have only entered it three times in recorded history."

The last time was three hundred years ago.

It was a place that resembled an upside-down world, where fish flew in the sky, and on the ground, there was a crystal-blue sky.

The merfolk who went in together had never faced such a situation before, and they all stood there somewhat stunned in the crystal-blue sky.

It wasn't until I had difficulty breathing that I realized there was no water around.

Just as everyone was starting to feel the urge to go back, one of the merfolk tripped and fell, realizing that although there was no water around them, they could swim freely.

At this point, Uncle Shang blushed slightly, as if he was a little ashamed to say it. He cleared his throat and continued, "After discovering that they could swim freely, everyone went up to the sky without prior arrangement."

The reasoning was simple: we thought the fish in the sky were thriving, so we, being a type of fish, should be able to breathe even without water.

"But when we got up there, we found that things were not as simple as we thought. There was not only water, but it was also vast and boundless, like another sea."

When we looked down, the place where we had been standing did indeed resemble a vast blue sky, and we could even clearly see birds flying by.

"How amazing!" Upon hearing this, the mermaid princess opened her eyes wide and couldn't help but exclaim.

"Yes, it is indeed amazing." Uncle Shang also sighed, "Everything is upside down, yet it can continue to thrive. Even now, if it weren't for the shark-whipping stick I have, I wouldn't believe that such a place exists in the world."

"At that time, we were carrying out a mission given to us by the previous Merfolk King on his deathbed: to go to a palace to find a race that looked very similar to the Merfolk."

"Wait, Uncle Shang, I don't quite understand." The mermaid princess suddenly spoke up, murmuring, "Searching for that race that resembles mermaids..."

"This is obviously a very important task, especially since you are going to a completely unfamiliar place, Uncle Shang. Logically speaking, Grandpa should tell you about the ancient sea territory."

But judging from what you just said, Uncle Shang, it seems you didn't know anything about the ancient sea region back then.

Upon hearing this, Uncle Shang nodded and said, "Yes, it is indeed as Mengmeng said. At that time, we did not know anything about the Ancient Sea region."

"But it's not that your grandfather didn't tell us, sigh... in the end, it's just a coincidence."

"You may have heard that the ancient sea territory is not within the western sea. This statement is not entirely wrong. To be more precise, the passage to the ancient sea territory is within the western sea."

"This passage opens about once every thousand years, but the timing is not entirely fixed; sometimes it opens earlier, sometimes later."

Your grandfather calculated the opening time of the third passage too late based on the opening time of the second passage. The third passage was opened a full two hundred years earlier. Your grandfather passed away before he could tell us any of the relevant information.

Yun Qingyi, Ji Zhaoze, Yun Qingrou, Mermaid Princess: ...

How hasty.

"Aren't there any similar books? After all, this is a big deal no matter how you look at it," Yun Qingyi finally asked after listening for a while.

"Well..." Uncle Shang scratched his head sheepishly and said in a low voice, "In order to ensure the absolute confidentiality of information related to the ancient sea, the Mermaid Emperor at that time decided to pass it down orally and keep the information in his mind."

Yun Qingyi: "..."

"Even so, the predecessors couldn't have only told the information to the former Mermaid King, could they? What about the others?"

"Uh... back then, the former Mermaid King lived the longest; everyone else had already passed away before him."

Yun Qingyi: "..." She rarely felt speechless about anything unless she really couldn't help it.