Recommendations Cultivation novel where mc genuiely struggles

I am somewhat tired of novels in which mc finds a "cheat" in whatever form and uses it to get advantage. I'm looking for a novel where there is no such thing (or it has a small impact).

Preferences:
-relatively long (500+ chapters)
-has romantic subplot (not necessary, I don't mind harem / rape)
-fully translated (or is really close to being translated)

 

Without cheat they would just die, read many novels and haven't found one with real struggle.

 

Peerless Martial God
Martial Arts Master ?

I'd recommend Martial Arts Master. Mc gets a cheat but it doesn't give him much of an edge against his opponents..

 

A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality. He has a cheaty thing that honestly just cancels out his shitty talent so he's pretty average

 

Way of Choices

Honestly the MC kind of has a cheat, but this was the closest I could think of where the MC works for his cultivation.

 

I mean ISSTH, Reneged immortal, World of Cultivation. It honestly depends on what you consider struggling.

 

I guess Pursuit of the Truth. He struggles a lot. More mentally then physically for....reasons. But he ain't underpowered , he still kicks ass. The world is literally a prison made for him.

 

http://fanfox.net/manga/peerless_dad/ - ?, I don't think he has any cheat, but I haven't been following much recently

 

I mean, having greatest talent in the universe kinda counts as a cheat(nirvana fruits, mist blade, merely doing vaguely same motion as father and sword intent descends, 123 merdians, lower and upper immortal heaven or whatever it was called, eternal foundation and so on).

 

I mean I don't know if talent counts as a cheat and before going of the main planet/plane he did all with training and hard work. You can't really blame someone for being talented if he wasn't he would be dead But the other two are better examples.

 

Reverend Insanity mc relies on rebirth till he reaches immortality so from ~500-700 chapter there are no cheats also enemies aren't stupid as in your average xianxia so 10000 years old won't act like horny 13 olds

 

You Could Try out Reverand Insanity , the main character there struggles a lot and goes through a lot of hardship . He struggles so much that he even becomes a demonic cultivator . The only cheat is that he turns back time to 500 years to the past using a Gu he collected . Other than that you will see the dark bloody side of the cultivation world and also it is quite cerebral as well a lot of philosophy and conspiracy and scheming .

 

Not cultivation but if you're looking for an MC that's simply average and works incredibly hard for his strength then Possessing Nothing is a good read ( he also has an inferiority complex ).

 

Mother of Learning
My House of Horrors
My Iyashikei Game
The Zombie Knight Saga

 

Lol that bottle is one of the most overpowered cheats I have ever seen tbh.

Also his talent is not "average".
Big spoiler

Spoiler

in the sequel it is revealed that

Spoiler

MC is the time shifted version of someone who cultivated to the highest cultivation realm. Because of course who doesnt love big retcon like that like naruto is reincarnation of big 6 path sage son >_<. MC cultivated to the highest realm WITHOUT the bottle. So yeah with tthat bottle... hes basically strolling through on story mode. Retcons suck. I guess you could say the bottle didnt have much effect because MC had the talent to cultivate to highest realm without it anyways?

Try Abyss Domination. Mc struggles really hard

 

Read Gate Of Good Fortune
Literally one of the few novels where Mc actually struggles throughout the entire novel
The rest of the reccomandations in this thread aren't that good
You could also try out The Dark King cause the Mc kinda struggles from like 200 chaps upwards a bunch of stuff happens

 

Gate Of Good Fortune is more like gate of misfortune, everyone steals his girls and the mc just goes from low region where lvl2 people rule to high region where lvl2 people are as normal as cabbages without increasing his strength consequently getting fucked by everyone. What a dumbass. One of the shittiest novels i have read.

Other recommendation are at least miles better even if op is not looking for that kind of novel.


Demon's diary,RMJI are the only ones that i know where mc lacks talent and have to preservere through a lot just for slight edge.

 

>OP asks for novels where Mc struggles
>Someone suggest novel where Mc struggles
What no you can't do that
Literally it's a novel where the main character struggles and there is no NTR in the novel at best he gets separated from female characters but no one "Steals his girl". Main character has a cheat but zero backing and constantly has to fight enemies that are way stronger than him the title of this thread is "Cultivation novel where main character struggles" and thats what Gate Of Good Fortune is
People shit on good fortune because they like to self insert themselves as the Mc and its not nice to do that on good fortune cause the Mc always struggling and doesn't spend alot of time with female characters and note I say female characters not love interests cause there's only 2 actual love interests

 

You can think that way but i think mc of Gate Of Good Fortune is one of the dumbest mc i have seen.

 

That's completely relative, the main character ain't dumb cause he has to constantly run away from strong characters lmao. He literally has no knowledge of the surrounding world, it's not like his intentionally running towards more powerful characters.
It legit has the "unlucky protagonist" tag for a reason and rightfully so