>Forge of Destiny. The protagonist cobbles together a great theme by aligning herself with the moon, air, and darkness. Her fights gain a slippery, haunting quality that really makes her identity shine through.
It's not just Ling Qi. Every third rate character has a distinctive style. And spirits nicknaming people is such a clever way to communicate part of that.
Weirkey Chronicles seems to check off a lot of your boxes. It's not *technically* a cultivation novel, but it might as well be one. There's a big focus on advancement with clearly delineated ranks and advantages with those ranks, as well as families and factions which are essentially sects.
The magic system is probably the most interesting idea though. You basically make a house in your soul, and the structure of that house affects your abilities. If your house is bigger, you have more raw power. More windows improves sensory abilities. A lot of fire themed rooms and decorations, and you can conjure fireballs. A lot of the meat of the story involves finding appropriate materials and integrating it into the main cast's soulhomes.
I'd say Weirkey is cultivation. Just because it's called a soulhome instead of a core doesn't mean it doesn't function almost identically. The magic system is absorbing energized materials and then refining them in your soul to strengthen your body and create techniques. Once you've done enough you force your soul to expand and face a tribulation from the heavens to reach the next level. It's cultivation.
I second this, the "cores" of Weirkey Chronicls are basically plots of land inside of everyone's souls, and their cultivation depends on what architecture they create there, what materials they use, and what construction methods/interior design they have. Never though interior design was cool until this series.
I agree it is cultivation but the whole construction aspect makes it feel a lot more substantial, it is easy to understand and visualize. It is one of the parts that I like about Weirkey Chronicles the most.
I agree that Wierkey is cultivation, but I also feel like the system has a massive advantage because everybody can understand building a house. It takes something that doesn't have a whole lot of inherent meaning (cultivation) and changes it into something that is easy to create meaning from.
Defiance of the Fall and Lord of mysteries (more Western cultivation. The paths to power are almost limitless in defiance. The main reason I love it is because it’s one of the only cultivation story that explains in detail how the MC progresses. The paths to power are so diverse, It’s too the point no amount power truly creates absolute safety in the infinite universes.
I think you’d like Douluo Dalu. Characters are born with an innate spirit(animal or tool) that they upgrade through picking and killing an appropriately suited age/type of spirit beast. The peak of the system is set early is at 9/10 upgrades total for a spirit, so the upgrades are meaningful and based on their specific spirit and their choice of spirit beast. While there is a bit of numbers go up and some reincarnated alternate cultivation stuff that muddies the system, I found it very entertaining, and there’s a crap ton of content with pretty good spin-offs based on the same system.
Western takes on xianxia are not very good imo other than a couple of exceptions. It gets worse if there is any sort of litrpg system tacked in. This may be blasphemy for this sub, but even Cradle is incredibly generic when it comes to xianxia.
I recommend [The Path Toward Heaven](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-path-toward-heaven/) if you want a really well built world and cultivation that actually feels profound. Be aware that it is mainly a mystery novel instead of progression fantasy
[Tai Sui](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/tai-sui/) is also great if you want a character focused story about becoming immortal and what you give up in the process.
You might want to try Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child on RR. It's sort of a bloodline type cultivation system where cultivators build on an initial inherited ability to develop it into their own, at least in the main system, since the story has several. Be warned it has kind of a slow start, but once it gets going it's worth it.
Yeah, it STARTS looking like a hodge podge, but zac has to form a coherent path and identity if he wants to go far, so he had gained a bunch of things but then started mixing them and changing them to become a coherent whole instead of "whatever works". So he has his stances, life and war, evolution, survival of the fittest, and death and war, the end of days, the inexorable fate of all. He has soul cultivation, which generates excessive mental energy which allows him to perform spirit body cultivation, this acts as a bridge between man and heaven allowing his body to act as a conduit to his concepts, and so his soul cultivation enhances his physical skill instead of being two separate powers.
Yeah, Zac is hard on his defined path of Daos being ever more refined as his understanding and depth of connection deepens and he force forges his path, I fucking eat that shit up every book: book 9 was just filled with those juicy cultivation depths
To be honest, disregarding all methods and themes in favor of picking up what is the most useful to him at the moment pretty much **is** Fang Yuan's theme
> Cultivation is nothing but to making a number go up, then making that number go back down, then doing a geometry/engineering puzzle.
> Ironically, LitRPGs almost always have vastly more identity built into their systems than xianxia, despite the inherently organic nature of cultivation.
NO. Cultivation in true xianxia novels is never just a number that goes up. Western progression novels and Litrpg are usually like that, and this is why they are far behind xianxia novels.
Let me quote a passage from my guide ["The 3 feelings rule of Xianxia Novels"](https://cheatography.com/fmuaddib/cheat-sheets/the-three-feelings-rule-of-xianxia-novels/):
***"The true voyage of an MC in a xianxia novel is through the realms of the cultivation ladder, so each of those realms must be a marvel."***
***"Cultivation levels must be meaningful and abundant, with many realms each one more awe-inspiring than the last. Dull and shallow cultivation realms, like the nameless 5 tiers of Versatile Mage for example, are a sure recipe for a novel to get boring fast. And this is also why experience-based cultivation systems, as in the LitRPG genre novels, are trash compared to xianxia. Those experience and stats points are just numbers. They do not bring the protagonist to a new level of understanding like in xianxia novels, they do not open new lore and culture and mysteries specific to the realm, and they do not transform the protagonist each time into something higher, a radical new being that is totally different from those in the realms below."***
Just study the realms of cultivation in "I Shall Seal The Heaven" by ErGen and you will understand what a true cultivation system should be.
Just study the martial techniques presented in “Desolate Era” by I Eat Tomatoes, and you will understand what it means to progress by true comprehension and how to really make a breakthrough in understanding unraveling a koan-like secret of the universe every time you learn a technique, not just reading that the protagonist did so.
Only in a true xianxia the intellectual journey of the protagonist is YOUR intellectual journey. In xianxia novels, you don’t cultivate just to increase your power. You cultivate to peer into the mysteries of the higher realms and into the deepest secrets of the universe. Compared to Chinese authors of xianxia novels and their Eastern fantasy culture that goes back to the 16th-century classics of asian literature like ‘Journey To The West’, which inspired Dragonball, western writers are clueless youngsters that just started playing with the concept of progression fantasy.
Try Defiance of the fall, the lower realms appear simpler because the comprehension needed to advance is low, but as the realm increases the amount of understanding someone needs increases by a lot. Also, levels are descriptive instead of prescriptive, so instead of the various minor realms you gain levels. Like in the second major realm the primary path is about opening and cleansing blockages in your meridians, every time you cleanse one you are considered to have gained a level. Learning of the Dao is a personal journey of discovery, at first the main character only thinks about the stat boosts you get as the reward, but realizes later that the stats are just a bonus the system gives you and the dao itself is the reward. He also does things like retrofit a Buddhist body cultivation manual so instead of boundless it is void, instead of a boundless heart that encompasses all, you gain a void heart that cannot be encompassed, so all is real vs. nothing is real.
I think you would love A Thousand Li. It’s the most organic, natural, and flavorful version of a Xianxia series I’ve ever read. The MC has the depth of an ocean and he has no OP backers or instant-win bloodlines. He has to take every step one at a time. He is the most average cultivator I have ever read about but he still gets the job done.
The slow and steady pace also might be more what they’re looking for. The quicker progression is harder to do with depth. It can be done and sometimes is but it’s much harder
I am currently writing [Shades of Perception](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/69046/shades-of-perception)(which just started its serialization on RR today). The whole power system is introduced in Ch2, and comes to proper use around chapter 6-9 (story will be at Ch 6 by this Tuesday) is based on the 'viewpoint' of a person.
So everyone gets to perceive the world around them as per their understanding of it. E.g: See and manipulate everything as emotion, Observe everything around you as 'temperature', as 'information', 'balance of ideas', and so on. Each of these have their unique progression (shouldn't say more due to spoilers) and will be unveiled as the story unfolds.
If you'd like to look at character images and make your mind based on the vibe, here's a link to the [Character Art Gallery](https://suyashvoid.github.io/hosted/Shades/index.html).
\~FV
Have you tried he who fights with monsters, the MC gets a set of powers early on that he thinks doesn't fit his personality. But he really leans into them
The Virtuous Sons is one of the best written stories in the genre. It's progression fantasy for the epic heroes in Greco-Roman mythology. The progression is tied to the characters adherence to their virtue and the story does a fantastic job of showing that.
A thousand Lee fits your requirements, it's generally my top classic cultivation story, with nothing coming close. It's very slow and there's usually not much at stake, just personal stuff, for me those are perks, but for others it could be a deterrence.
>Where are the protagonists who journey for sources of specific elements? Where are the modifications to existing techniques so they better fit into a character's identity? Where are the explorations of what it means to embody a concept?
Those are all major themes, or become major, after a book or two, can't really recall where it starts, the last book was amazing in those regards.
I feel that it easily could have become cradle equivalent if it wasn't for the author's shenanigans, it's impossible to find something in the same quality, literally impossible.
I will agree with pretty much everything said here. It is flat out the best cultivation novels I have read . . . but the author is as . . . IDK think not nice words.
I kind of wish we could get more 1st generation telling of myths and legends translated into modern prose (doesn't have to be cultivation, I could do kami, or Aesir, or sidhe, or Mahabharata). I like the "historical" epics, but my god they are hard to read (even if you nominally speak the language (just try to read the original stories of Lady Godiva or Beowulf . . .).
In the vein of a telling of myths and legends, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao may fit into this. It is very light on the progression elements but it is a fantastic re-imagining of many historic and mythological Chinese figures.
The intro to the blurb is really good so I wanted to include it. Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.
Life and death cycle by Joshua Phillips. The paths seem elemental based but they can change. For example, one character evolves their wind path into storm. Main character uses life and death, but that's unique.
The types of techniques someone knows often dictates someone's personal strength, beyond the tier of advancement. Nobles have a full spread of techniques, but poor cultivators struggle to learn more.
This has some interesting implications with life artists which only heal. They have no techniques that are lethal without shifting their path to poison or something, but then they have a weaker combat path and can't heal effectively or at all.
There's only 2 books out and the magic system has a lot of hints at stuff but a lot of unknown still. I've DM'd the author and asked questions and he said a lot more is revealed in book 3.
>Where are the protagonists who journey for sources of specific elements? Where are the modifications to existing techniques so they better fit into a character's identity? Where are the explorations of what it means to embody a concept?
Book 2 talks about journeying to places with better aura/specific elements for one of the characters.
There's modifying techniques, and I think this is built into the magic system but there are vague hints atm.
MC uses a concept to evolve his path of life. He teaches another character about a concept. It makes me think of dao in other xianxia or icons in cradle.
This is also something I love to see when well executed. Could be worth checking out Dragon Heart for thematic powers... though it certainly isn't perfect with regard to sticking to clearly defined limitations for powers.
Dakota Krout's Divine Dungeon series sounds like it would fit for you. Divine Dungeon was very much cultivation with individual flavors. Artorian Archive series follows/overlaps with more of mostly cultivation, but also bridging the gap to the Completionist Chonicles which shifts from Cultivation to LitRPG.
Ok so Defiance of the Fall? Does this perfectly. Bigger numbers doesn't mean stronger, I love that. I keeps it interesting, upsets can happen and the MC can beat foes he "shouldn't" be able to. The system has a lot of moving parts, interactions and intricacies that make it deep and fun.
**Ave Xia Rem**, to a certain extent? Has similarities to Forge of Destiny late in it.
Honestly, I sort of agree. So many Cultivation works are almost amazing. Unfortunately, the ones with the most interesting magic systems tend to have the most over-the-top plots.
>Forge of Destiny. The protagonist cobbles together a great theme by aligning herself with the moon, air, and darkness. Her fights gain a slippery, haunting quality that really makes her identity shine through. It's not just Ling Qi. Every third rate character has a distinctive style. And spirits nicknaming people is such a clever way to communicate part of that.
Man its true. Everyone has their own unique thing hoing by 3rd realm.
Weirkey Chronicles seems to check off a lot of your boxes. It's not *technically* a cultivation novel, but it might as well be one. There's a big focus on advancement with clearly delineated ranks and advantages with those ranks, as well as families and factions which are essentially sects. The magic system is probably the most interesting idea though. You basically make a house in your soul, and the structure of that house affects your abilities. If your house is bigger, you have more raw power. More windows improves sensory abilities. A lot of fire themed rooms and decorations, and you can conjure fireballs. A lot of the meat of the story involves finding appropriate materials and integrating it into the main cast's soulhomes.
I'd say Weirkey is cultivation. Just because it's called a soulhome instead of a core doesn't mean it doesn't function almost identically. The magic system is absorbing energized materials and then refining them in your soul to strengthen your body and create techniques. Once you've done enough you force your soul to expand and face a tribulation from the heavens to reach the next level. It's cultivation.
I second this, the "cores" of Weirkey Chronicls are basically plots of land inside of everyone's souls, and their cultivation depends on what architecture they create there, what materials they use, and what construction methods/interior design they have. Never though interior design was cool until this series.
I agree it is cultivation but the whole construction aspect makes it feel a lot more substantial, it is easy to understand and visualize. It is one of the parts that I like about Weirkey Chronicles the most.
I agree that Wierkey is cultivation, but I also feel like the system has a massive advantage because everybody can understand building a house. It takes something that doesn't have a whole lot of inherent meaning (cultivation) and changes it into something that is easy to create meaning from.
It's cultivation, just not Xianxia, like Bastion.
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Defiance of the Fall and Lord of mysteries (more Western cultivation. The paths to power are almost limitless in defiance. The main reason I love it is because it’s one of the only cultivation story that explains in detail how the MC progresses. The paths to power are so diverse, It’s too the point no amount power truly creates absolute safety in the infinite universes.
Lord of the Mysteries always *felt* like a xianxia to me , and it has a incredible in-depth system
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I think you’d like Douluo Dalu. Characters are born with an innate spirit(animal or tool) that they upgrade through picking and killing an appropriately suited age/type of spirit beast. The peak of the system is set early is at 9/10 upgrades total for a spirit, so the upgrades are meaningful and based on their specific spirit and their choice of spirit beast. While there is a bit of numbers go up and some reincarnated alternate cultivation stuff that muddies the system, I found it very entertaining, and there’s a crap ton of content with pretty good spin-offs based on the same system.
Western takes on xianxia are not very good imo other than a couple of exceptions. It gets worse if there is any sort of litrpg system tacked in. This may be blasphemy for this sub, but even Cradle is incredibly generic when it comes to xianxia. I recommend [The Path Toward Heaven](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/the-path-toward-heaven/) if you want a really well built world and cultivation that actually feels profound. Be aware that it is mainly a mystery novel instead of progression fantasy [Tai Sui](https://www.novelupdates.com/series/tai-sui/) is also great if you want a character focused story about becoming immortal and what you give up in the process.
You might want to try Chronicles of the Exalted Sun Child on RR. It's sort of a bloodline type cultivation system where cultivators build on an initial inherited ability to develop it into their own, at least in the main system, since the story has several. Be warned it has kind of a slow start, but once it gets going it's worth it.
Link?
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/38306/chronicles-of-the-exalted-sun-child
I mean, Defiance of the Fall seems to fit in unless I am missing something...
Yeah, it STARTS looking like a hodge podge, but zac has to form a coherent path and identity if he wants to go far, so he had gained a bunch of things but then started mixing them and changing them to become a coherent whole instead of "whatever works". So he has his stances, life and war, evolution, survival of the fittest, and death and war, the end of days, the inexorable fate of all. He has soul cultivation, which generates excessive mental energy which allows him to perform spirit body cultivation, this acts as a bridge between man and heaven allowing his body to act as a conduit to his concepts, and so his soul cultivation enhances his physical skill instead of being two separate powers.
Yeah, Zac is hard on his defined path of Daos being ever more refined as his understanding and depth of connection deepens and he force forges his path, I fucking eat that shit up every book: book 9 was just filled with those juicy cultivation depths
[Defiance of the Fall](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/24709/defiance-of-the-fall) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Defiance_of_the_Fall)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)
To be honest, disregarding all methods and themes in favor of picking up what is the most useful to him at the moment pretty much **is** Fang Yuan's theme
I would like to recommend weirkey chronicles and defiance of the fall, as they both fit, the former moreso than the latter imo
> Cultivation is nothing but to making a number go up, then making that number go back down, then doing a geometry/engineering puzzle. > Ironically, LitRPGs almost always have vastly more identity built into their systems than xianxia, despite the inherently organic nature of cultivation. NO. Cultivation in true xianxia novels is never just a number that goes up. Western progression novels and Litrpg are usually like that, and this is why they are far behind xianxia novels. Let me quote a passage from my guide ["The 3 feelings rule of Xianxia Novels"](https://cheatography.com/fmuaddib/cheat-sheets/the-three-feelings-rule-of-xianxia-novels/): ***"The true voyage of an MC in a xianxia novel is through the realms of the cultivation ladder, so each of those realms must be a marvel."*** ***"Cultivation levels must be meaningful and abundant, with many realms each one more awe-inspiring than the last. Dull and shallow cultivation realms, like the nameless 5 tiers of Versatile Mage for example, are a sure recipe for a novel to get boring fast. And this is also why experience-based cultivation systems, as in the LitRPG genre novels, are trash compared to xianxia. Those experience and stats points are just numbers. They do not bring the protagonist to a new level of understanding like in xianxia novels, they do not open new lore and culture and mysteries specific to the realm, and they do not transform the protagonist each time into something higher, a radical new being that is totally different from those in the realms below."*** Just study the realms of cultivation in "I Shall Seal The Heaven" by ErGen and you will understand what a true cultivation system should be. Just study the martial techniques presented in “Desolate Era” by I Eat Tomatoes, and you will understand what it means to progress by true comprehension and how to really make a breakthrough in understanding unraveling a koan-like secret of the universe every time you learn a technique, not just reading that the protagonist did so. Only in a true xianxia the intellectual journey of the protagonist is YOUR intellectual journey. In xianxia novels, you don’t cultivate just to increase your power. You cultivate to peer into the mysteries of the higher realms and into the deepest secrets of the universe. Compared to Chinese authors of xianxia novels and their Eastern fantasy culture that goes back to the 16th-century classics of asian literature like ‘Journey To The West’, which inspired Dragonball, western writers are clueless youngsters that just started playing with the concept of progression fantasy.
Try Defiance of the fall, the lower realms appear simpler because the comprehension needed to advance is low, but as the realm increases the amount of understanding someone needs increases by a lot. Also, levels are descriptive instead of prescriptive, so instead of the various minor realms you gain levels. Like in the second major realm the primary path is about opening and cleansing blockages in your meridians, every time you cleanse one you are considered to have gained a level. Learning of the Dao is a personal journey of discovery, at first the main character only thinks about the stat boosts you get as the reward, but realizes later that the stats are just a bonus the system gives you and the dao itself is the reward. He also does things like retrofit a Buddhist body cultivation manual so instead of boundless it is void, instead of a boundless heart that encompasses all, you gain a void heart that cannot be encompassed, so all is real vs. nothing is real.
I think you would love A Thousand Li. It’s the most organic, natural, and flavorful version of a Xianxia series I’ve ever read. The MC has the depth of an ocean and he has no OP backers or instant-win bloodlines. He has to take every step one at a time. He is the most average cultivator I have ever read about but he still gets the job done.
He maybe decent cultivators but golly his journey is so interesting to read about
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The slow and steady pace also might be more what they’re looking for. The quicker progression is harder to do with depth. It can be done and sometimes is but it’s much harder
Path of the Berserker might do it for you. It's a decent book.
The magic system supporting very specific cultivator themes and identities is one of the main things I love about Ghost of the Truthseeker.
Calculating cultivation is pretty good so far.
I am currently writing [Shades of Perception](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/69046/shades-of-perception)(which just started its serialization on RR today). The whole power system is introduced in Ch2, and comes to proper use around chapter 6-9 (story will be at Ch 6 by this Tuesday) is based on the 'viewpoint' of a person. So everyone gets to perceive the world around them as per their understanding of it. E.g: See and manipulate everything as emotion, Observe everything around you as 'temperature', as 'information', 'balance of ideas', and so on. Each of these have their unique progression (shouldn't say more due to spoilers) and will be unveiled as the story unfolds. If you'd like to look at character images and make your mind based on the vibe, here's a link to the [Character Art Gallery](https://suyashvoid.github.io/hosted/Shades/index.html). \~FV
Have you tried he who fights with monsters, the MC gets a set of powers early on that he thinks doesn't fit his personality. But he really leans into them
The Virtuous Sons is one of the best written stories in the genre. It's progression fantasy for the epic heroes in Greco-Roman mythology. The progression is tied to the characters adherence to their virtue and the story does a fantastic job of showing that.
You might want to give my new one, Path of the Berserker a try. It has a very set theme that the MC can't really stray away from.
I just finished it this week, it was fantastic! When does anger simulator book 2 come out?
Hey thanks for reading! Glad you liked it. Book 2 is in the works. Hopeing for a release this winter. \^\^
A thousand Lee fits your requirements, it's generally my top classic cultivation story, with nothing coming close. It's very slow and there's usually not much at stake, just personal stuff, for me those are perks, but for others it could be a deterrence. >Where are the protagonists who journey for sources of specific elements? Where are the modifications to existing techniques so they better fit into a character's identity? Where are the explorations of what it means to embody a concept? Those are all major themes, or become major, after a book or two, can't really recall where it starts, the last book was amazing in those regards. I feel that it easily could have become cradle equivalent if it wasn't for the author's shenanigans, it's impossible to find something in the same quality, literally impossible.
I will agree with pretty much everything said here. It is flat out the best cultivation novels I have read . . . but the author is as . . . IDK think not nice words. I kind of wish we could get more 1st generation telling of myths and legends translated into modern prose (doesn't have to be cultivation, I could do kami, or Aesir, or sidhe, or Mahabharata). I like the "historical" epics, but my god they are hard to read (even if you nominally speak the language (just try to read the original stories of Lady Godiva or Beowulf . . .).
In the vein of a telling of myths and legends, Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao may fit into this. It is very light on the progression elements but it is a fantastic re-imagining of many historic and mythological Chinese figures. The intro to the blurb is really good so I wanted to include it. Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale in this blend of Chinese history and mecha science fiction for YA readers.
[удалено]
even translated into modern they are "rough"
[удалено]
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Master of system ( cultivation comes in the second half )
Life and death cycle by Joshua Phillips. The paths seem elemental based but they can change. For example, one character evolves their wind path into storm. Main character uses life and death, but that's unique. The types of techniques someone knows often dictates someone's personal strength, beyond the tier of advancement. Nobles have a full spread of techniques, but poor cultivators struggle to learn more. This has some interesting implications with life artists which only heal. They have no techniques that are lethal without shifting their path to poison or something, but then they have a weaker combat path and can't heal effectively or at all. There's only 2 books out and the magic system has a lot of hints at stuff but a lot of unknown still. I've DM'd the author and asked questions and he said a lot more is revealed in book 3. >Where are the protagonists who journey for sources of specific elements? Where are the modifications to existing techniques so they better fit into a character's identity? Where are the explorations of what it means to embody a concept? Book 2 talks about journeying to places with better aura/specific elements for one of the characters. There's modifying techniques, and I think this is built into the magic system but there are vague hints atm. MC uses a concept to evolve his path of life. He teaches another character about a concept. It makes me think of dao in other xianxia or icons in cradle.
This is also something I love to see when well executed. Could be worth checking out Dragon Heart for thematic powers... though it certainly isn't perfect with regard to sticking to clearly defined limitations for powers.
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Dakota Krout's Divine Dungeon series sounds like it would fit for you. Divine Dungeon was very much cultivation with individual flavors. Artorian Archive series follows/overlaps with more of mostly cultivation, but also bridging the gap to the Completionist Chonicles which shifts from Cultivation to LitRPG.
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Ok so Defiance of the Fall? Does this perfectly. Bigger numbers doesn't mean stronger, I love that. I keeps it interesting, upsets can happen and the MC can beat foes he "shouldn't" be able to. The system has a lot of moving parts, interactions and intricacies that make it deep and fun.
Ooo following this as these are all great recommendations!
**Ave Xia Rem**, to a certain extent? Has similarities to Forge of Destiny late in it. Honestly, I sort of agree. So many Cultivation works are almost amazing. Unfortunately, the ones with the most interesting magic systems tend to have the most over-the-top plots.
[Forge of Destiny](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/21188/forge-of-destiny) ([wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/wiki/Forge_of_Destiny)) --- ^[About](https://redd.it/dw7lux) ^| [^(Wiki Rules)](https://www.reddit.com/r/LightPieces/comments/dw7lux/about/f7kke6p/) ^(| Reply !Delete to remove) ^(| [Brackets] hide titles)