Looking for a novel where the mc is mediocre or struggles in his journey. After reading many cultivation novels, I am a bit tired and bored with mc with heaven-defying luck, perception or aptitude. So yeah, I want to see cultivation novels, where the mc doesn't always get what he wants, doesn't have perfect foundations, isn't always strongest among his peers. Examples: A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality - MC has a poor aptitude, only one cheat item, relies on elixirs for breakthrough (most other mc usually breakthrough with comprehension or enlightenment) Reverend Insanity - Mc dislikes to rely on his cheats, his plans often fail and has to improvise, he doesn't have a perfect foundation Ze Tian Ji and Nightfall - Mc is not the strongest, even until the end lol. any more that suits my requirements or comes close to that?
The Gate Of Good Fortune and Perfect World maybe? And does Lord of the Mysteries falls under the genre of cultivation?
Not sure if this is what you’re looking for, but in “My Disciple Died Yet Again,” the MC dies. A lot.
https://www.novelupdates.com/series/nine-star-hegemon-body-art/ While as a baby, his Spirit Root, Spirit Bone and Spirit Blood were mysteriously removed, thus crippling him permanently from cultivation. He later gains an alternate method to get strong, but it literally goes against the will of the Heavens. His luck is poor for random drops/rewards and during realm advancement tribulations, the Heavens goes out of their way to try to kill him. His alternate cultivation method relies almost completely on pills since he can't absorb qi from the air. His cheat includes a Pill God's memories, but he still needs massive amounts of materials to make the pills. And of course, each increment in improvement require significantly more pills that require more and more rare materials.
Molting the Mortal Coil. On RRL, and a very different story to most Cultivation Novels out there, and is a very slow story. The MC, despite being a reincarnated person, does not have the greatest natural talent for Cultivation. He does not have knowledge in cultivation or a drive to defy the heavens that pushes him to become far more powerful than others. He is never a young prodigy, nor does he try to get vengeance for the "wrongs he has received" while dishing out similar wrongs onto others regularly with no concern to the consequences. Fairly early on, after the MC learns his family cultivation arts, his branch of the family gets destroyed by someone annoyed about the young family head killing his brother, and the MC needs to run for safety while avoiding the hunters from rival families. Significantly later, the MC discovers that his cultivation technique, which he picked up to help his crafting, is absolute garbage because it's designed to change one's elemental affinity to one they're not suited for, and thus are far weaker at than those who are suited for that affinity. Now, this doesn't mean that the MC never gets any luck, even what some novels would call Heaven-Defying Luck. It's just that he's not the only character who ever gets Heaven-Defying Luck, with the more powerful cultivators being likely to have received some at some point in the past, most many receiving it regularly. Before you read this, please read the ENTIRETY of the Author's Description, including the bit that's hidden underneath the "Show More" extension. It gives you a bit of an idea as to what you're getting into if you're thinking of starting this.