The sound of a sputtering engine echoed through the quiet provincial road. Win, a tricycle driver in his early twenties, leaned back in his seat, humming to an old OPM song while his passengers enjoyed the cool night breeze.
It was almost midnight. The moon hung low, casting silver light over the rice fields. Win had just dropped off his last passenger and was about to head home when he noticed something unusual — an old man in ancient-looking robes standing alone by the roadside.
The man's clothes looked like they belonged to a historical drama: flowing dark-green robes with embroidered clouds, a long silver beard, and a wooden staff topped with a strange glowing stone.
Win slowed down, concerned.
"Lolo, are you alright? Wala po bang masakyan?" he asked in Tagalog without thinking.
The old man's eyes twinkled. "Water…" he rasped.
Win rummaged under his seat and pulled out a half-filled bottle. "Here. It's warm, but—"
The moment their hands touched, the glowing stone atop the staff flared with blinding light. Win's vision blurred. His ears rang. The sound of crickets and night wind vanished.
When his eyes opened again… the road was gone.
He was lying on a stone platform surrounded by towering mountains and an endless sea of clouds. Strange-robed people flew past on swords, their robes fluttering like banners in the wind. Some carried cages holding beasts with glowing eyes and shimmering scales.
"What… the…" Win muttered.
A sharp pain shot through his head, followed by a flood of unfamiliar memories — the body he now inhabited belonged to an outer disciple of the Azure Cloud Beast Sect, a sect where cultivators bonded with spirit beasts to grow stronger.
In this world, cultivators rose through Ten Great Realms of Beast Taming:
1. Beast Initiate – Awakens the beast affinity.
2. Spirit Linker – Forms a bond with a first beast.
3. Core Pulse – Cultivates beast energy cores.
4. Soul Aligned – Merges soul and beast essence.
5. Beast Echo – Commands multiple beasts in harmony.
6. Resonance Path – Resonates with beast abilities.
7. Mystic Meridian – Channels beast power into meridians.
8. Heaven Sense – Perceives beast spirits beyond sight.
9. Ascendant Vein – Transcends mortal beast limits.
10. Celestial Manifestation – Achieves true beast-human unity.
And within him pulsed something strange — a cultivation art no one in this world had ever heard of.
The Way of the Wandering Pinoy.
It was a technique that drew strength from adaptability, resourcefulness, and… hard work?
"Of all the cheat skills… mine's basically being industrious?!" Win groaned. But as he glanced at the distant mountains, where colossal beasts roared and lightning danced among the clouds, he couldn't help but grin.
If the heavens had chosen him, then so be it.
He would tame beasts, climb the ranks of cultivation, and—
> "Moo!"
Win turned to see a small black creature with short horns and bright, intelligent eyes standing beside him. It looked like a calf, but sturdier and fiercer. Memories told him this was his beast companion — a Tamaraw Spirit Beast, native only to a faraway land no one here knew.
Win smirked. "Alright, Tams. Looks like it's you and me against the world."
And so began the journey of a Jeepney driver from the Philippines — a man destined to shake the heavens and carve his name into the immortal world.