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Monster? No, I'm a Cultivator! (Percy Jackson): Chapter 47
🕑 Added 2025-08-22 09:03:19 +0000 UTC“Higher?” Ocean Song asked.
“Higher, higher!” Lyra yelled happily.
And Ocean Song lifted her up as high as he could; the wind whipped through her hair, and she let out a high-pitched—albeit good-natured—scream.
Now, someone may question if holding a young child up on top of a bus moving seventy or eighty miles per hour was a good idea.
To that, Ocean Song would respond that he only has good ideas; therefore, he sees no problem with it.
That is also to say, Ocean Song was many things, but he certainly wasn’t an idiot.
He could protect her quite easily like this, and there was in fact less danger than if she were sitting inside, directly out of his arms' reach.
She was having so much fun, she didn’t even notice the actual danger happening right now.
As Ocean Song casually threw a few water droplets, turning them into projectiles and piercing some flying monsters that were chasing them.
Lyra didn’t see the monster corpses that had been left in their wake the past several hours.
It was Ocean Song’s goal for the remainder of this trip. Lyra was still young, and her life hadn’t been easy with everything involving her heritage. While the orphanage they stayed at was relatively safe, there was no doubt she experienced her share of monsters in her short life so far.
And especially on this trip, they had run into a few monsters. Even those Sphinxes, despite the fact that they weren’t hostile, scared Lyra, and she was hiding behind him the entire time.
Thus, Ocean Song had this goal.
While he couldn’t remove her fear, a healthy fear for a demigod, he could at least turn this trip from a terrifying experience to something resembling thrilling for her so it didn’t leave too many bad lasting impressions.
Like seeing a scary movie rather than constantly having near-death experiences.
Maybe it was a foolish goal, but he would do his best to take care of Hecate’s daughter.
Otherwise, besides the very—hundred—random monsters that Ocean Song had to kill after they left the Sphinx Station, it had been a rather quiet drive.
In fact, the next town was up ahead, and they seemed to be leaving the more isolated parts of the desert.
Ocean Song sat Lyra next to him on the top of the bus as they entered town. The smaller girl looked excitedly at everything, even if it was just the most mundane.
She didn’t have many experiences out and about, spending almost all her time at the orphanage. Simply going out to see a new city or town was something exciting for her.
“Mr. Ocean, look, there’s a zoo!” Lyra nearly jumped off the bus as she grabbed his sleeve, pointing at a big billboard.
Ocean Song mentally checked the bus schedule he heard when he got on. They did have a bit of a layover in this town.
He just nodded, as he knew what they would be doing for the next few hours.
@***@
Lyra happily held Ocean Song’s hand as he paid for the tickets at the zoo.
It wasn’t far away from the bus station. And they were told that departure would be in six hours from now, plenty of time to play around.
Of course, there was a worrying concern.
The warning he received from the Mother Sphinx before.
And now, he saw signs all over the place for Amazon.
However, he had yet to run into any evildoers, so he put it out of his mind for now.
“Can we go look at the Sharks first, Mr. Ocean?”
“We sure can.” Ocean Song smiled. “I also like Sharks.”
She nearly skipped away in excitement as they began to maneuver through the zoo exhibits. There aren’t many people there at the moment, possibly because it is the middle of the day during a weekday when most people are at work.
There was an aquarium-like portion that they found easily.
There was a small, shallow pool area with various signs, and Lyra all but ran over and carefully knelt at the edge to see the starfish inside.
It wasn’t just starfish.
Ocean Song spotted a turtle casually coasting.
It looked up at Ocean Song as well, meeting his gaze.
“Greetings, Senior.” Ocean Song spoke, using his Qi to separate the sound away from Lyra.
“Oh, a child of the Sea!” The Turtle had an aged voice, though it wasn’t talking in a way that other people understood. As a child of Poseidon, Ocean Song could understand aquatic creatures. “How long has it been since I’ve seen one of you? A great day, a great day!”
“Do you enjoy your time here, Senior? Or would you like to return to the vast waters of the world?”
“Why would I want to leave?” The turtle replied. “It’s so nice and peaceful here. I don’t have to worry about any predators, I don’t have to worry about food, and there are some lovely little turtle ladies that I spend my evenings with.”
Ocean Song just smiled.
“May I make a request, senior? This young lady here would be thrilled to see your magnificent shell up close. Are you against her touch or find it insulting in any way?”
“Hoho, it’s no problem. I let some of the surface hatchlings touch me every now and then.” He slowly swam over, right up to Lyra.
“Mr. Ocean, look! He came right up to me!” Lyra squeaked in excitement as she hesitantly reached out and rubbed the turtle on the shell.
Ocean Song could tell that the senior turtle was amused by it.
“Be sure to thank the turtle by giving it some food.” Ocean Song gestured to a little device that you could press, and it would dispense some food for the animals in these little artificial ponds.
Ocean Song thanks the Turtle himself and takes the opportunity to flash his Divine Sense out, not noticing any big lurking threats like a giant dragon or anything. Otherwise, he didn’t think there would be much danger.
“Sharks, sharks, I want to see the sharks!” Lyra started chanting, and Ocean Song obliged, taking her deeper into the aquarium sections.
There was a large tank, the size of several houses at least. Big enough that the larger aquatic life could move around, but to Ocean Song, who was a child of the sea, it still felt cramped just looking at it.
She pressed her face right up against the thick glass with wide eyes as she saw many different species of sea life.
“There’s one!” She called out, pressing her finger against the glass as a shark passed. “And that one too; that one is bigger!”
Ocean Song smiled.
It was enjoyable.
Not just because he liked seeing Lyra so excited and happy, but because he felt a stirring in his Dao heart, which correlated to his Cultivation base.
His Dao Heart was becoming firmer.
And he could feel a tugging in his Cultivation Base as his Nascent Soul grew ever so slightly.
This was good for both him and his Cultivation.
“Oh no, Mr. Ocean, that other shark is bullying the smaller one.” Lyra pointed out.
Ocean Song looked up, and he sort of became startled after what he saw. The shark she was pointing at was the ‘bigger’ of the two; it was…odd. Its proportions were very off, its fins looked more like arms, and it seemed to be able to crane the upper part of its body, sort of like a neck.
“Oh no, they’re fighting!” Lyra cried out.
“...yeah.”
They weren’t fighting.
It only took a glance for Ocean Song to see through what they were doing.
That was most certainly not ‘fighting.’ At least, not in the way she thought.
And what was worse, Ocean Song could hear them.
“YEAH, YOU LIKE THAT? YOU LITTLE—"
He quickly forced himself to pull his Divine Sense away so he could no longer ‘hear’ the bigger shark ‘fighting’ with the smaller one.
However, almost immediately the ‘bigger’ shark stopped, slowly turning its big shark head towards them, looking at them through the glass.
The shark met Ocean Song’s gaze.
It wasn’t a normal shark. It was most certainly some form of monster shark.
Words didn’t need to be spoken; there was a tacit understanding between men not to say anything and pretend this didn’t happen.
“Come on, let’s go look at some of the other animals.” Ocean Song gently but firmly led Lyra away from the not-shark definitely not fighting.
@***@
“Can we go to the store, Mr. Ocean?” Lyra asked.
She was referring to the souvenir shop that had a bunch of bright and colorful toys and oddities that attracted her attention.
“Sure, let’s go.” Ocean Song let her lead the way.
And he was happy to go.
He was very happy to get her out of this damn zoo.
Because, come to find out, the Shark Monster wasn’t an outlier. They had a panda exhibit; there was a panda youkai enjoying himself.
They went to see some giraffes; there was apparently a bipedal type of giraffe monster enjoying himself.
Snakes? Yup.
Birds? Also yes.
Ocean Song was wondering if he was actually one of the sane monsters around. He felt like his innocence had been lost on this trip.
Thankfully, Lyra just seemed completely oblivious, only noting that all the animals were ‘fighting’ a lot.
“Feel free to pick out anything you want.” Ocean Song patted her head. Despite the awkward viewing experience, Lyra was having fun; that’s what mattered.
And as they browsed, Ocean Song saw a familiar face. Lyra saw it too and immediately went to hide behind him.
There was a Sphinx in the shop, looking at some funny hats. It looked over, surprised to see them too.
“Oh, it’s you.” It said rather casually. His eyes landed on Lyra. “I’m not going to eat you; you don’t have to hide.”
Ocean Song gently put a hand on her and helped her come out to the front. “She’s still young and hasn’t had good experiences with Monsters yet.
The Sphinx raised an eyebrow, looking at him as if to ask if she knew that he was also a monster.
Ocean Song shrugged helplessly.
Children are strange.
“...can I touch your fur?” Lyra asked quietly, seemingly having gathered her courage.
“Alright.” The Sphinx didn’t seem to care.
Lyra hesitantly took a few steps forward and poked him like he was a fire and she would get burned if she lingered too long.
But Ocean Song recognized progress.
“Did you come to see the animals?” He looked down at Lyra.
Lyra nodded her head, sort of making herself smaller, but she didn’t immediately run and hide. “...we’re going to see the Lions next.”
For some reason the Sphinx now looked awkward. “They’re…tired and sleeping; there’s no point in seeing them right now.”
“Anything you want to say, fellow Daoist?” Ocean Song replied in a flat tone.
The Sphinx had the sense to look embarrassed. “Don’t judge me.”
There was an awkward silence that Lyra didn’t seem to pick up on.
“...Where do you think all the Sphinxes come from back at the store?” He pursed his lips.
“Is that why you’re here in this city, Fellow Daoist? Your matriarch spoke ill of the ‘evil’ here.” Ocean Song asked.
“No, I was actually heading over to talk to the boss of that place because a few of our suppliers fell through.”
“...weren’t they evil?”
He shrugged. “I’m a monster. Evil is relative. And Mom is kind of old-fashioned; she hates capitalism. She calls every major company “evil.”
“So, they’re not evil?”
“Oh no, they’re actually evil, just saying.” He shook his head.
“What do they do that’s so evil?”
“See, they undercut local business to the point where they can’t compete. Running prices into the ground until they go under and monopolize the local shipping and supplies industries. Then they roll out in bigger scales, slowly eating up other adjacent businesses so they can do everything themselves, controlling all processes of supplies and distribution completely. All the local and state businesses have to go through them, or they can’t get their stores stocked.”
Ocean Song’s eyes widened.
“Fellow Daoist, please let me clarify. Are you saying that they have put a stranglehold over the resources in the region into the hands of a select few, then through their lower levels, force others to compete for meager offerings while they hold onto the vast majority for themselves? With the threat of complete destruction if they step out of line?”
“...uh, I guess?” The Sphinx nodded.
“...This is no mere evil, Fellow Daoist.”
“What are you—”
“This is a fellow sect!” Ocean Song exclaimed. “Truly, I have been blind to the deeds of the Amazon Sect.”
“.....”
“I must speak to their sect leader to learn their secrets!” Ocean Song declares. “We shall join you on your journey.”
“It’s like four blocks away. But sure, why not?” The Sphinx shrugged.
The Sphinx didn’t mind, even if he found this Cyclops to be a bit on the crazy side. He seemed strong, and at the very least, it might help in case the Amazons tried to put him in a crate and sell him again.
“Come, Lyra. We will go learn how to be a proper Cultivation Sect from the experts!”
The Sphinx paused, questioned his decision, then shrugged.
It was still probably better than getting stuffed into a crate and sold by those equally crazy Amazons.
Probably.
@***@
A/N
Ocean Song discovers another sect, and he goes to seek their expertise.
Comments
Orchamus
Gods damn it Ocean Song 😂
George Wright
Who are you kidding, that wasn't a Zoo... that was a lore accurate Fury convention
