Recommendations Cultivation Fics w/ believable characters

What I'm not looking for:
- fics where characters are either black/white. For example, characters who are of only 2 categories: the kids who want to either fuck/serve the mc forever or kill the mc
- main characters who are arrogant as fuck and can curbstomp everything.
- harems and female characters whose only assets are their rack and beauty

What I'm looking for:
- an mc who is thoughtful/partially philosophical. Powerful, yes, but I'd really like to see someone who's capable of using that power in a mindful way. I don't want to read about senseless killing.
- character introduction, character development. I don't want to see characters who get introduced and immediately, at first glance, decide they either want to fuck or kill. Like, no honey. We're not playing fuck/marry/kill.
- male main characters (if can)
- I'm not interested in romance. But, if there is romance, I want it to be there for the actual emotion. I don't want to read stuff like "she was very beautiful and her body could make ten thousand men... whatever". Just, I don't want to get the feeling that the romance is there only because the girl is beautiful/only because of her assets.
- I'm fine with shounen ai/slash/yaoi, etc. I usually find that novels with homosexual couples center more on character development than heterosexual couples so yah I'm fine with that.

tl;dr:
I really really really don't want to read a cultivation fic where it seems like the writer is some dude who's really really fucking into girls but can't get the girls he wants so he writes fics that're basically just about big dick hulky guys who go around screwing every beautiful girl in the world and being super insanely OP in everything they do for no apparent reason.

 

World of Cultivation

 

World of Cultivation
Coiling Dragon
I Shall Seal the Heavens
Forty Millenniums of Cultivation
Ze Tian Ji
Transcending the Nine Heavens
The Inverted Dragon's Scale

 

Since romance is not a must for you, I'd say anything by IET would fit all your criteria.

 

I Shall Seal the Heavens
Transcending the Nine Heavens

 

I only know about ones with FMC
Ascending, Do Not Disturb (People are reasonable with cultivation and don't do senseless murder and stuff)
My Disciple Died Yet Again (Comedy, the MC is reasonable and many times there're moments that outright mock xinxia tropes and make MC's look like bad guys. The story is good too)
RRL novel full of chaos, more or less fitting your description though kinda weird
Dao of Magic

 

No Douluo Dalu yet?

 

i liked Cultivation Chat Group i'd say it fits 80 - 90 percent of what you want.

 

Desolate Era
Skyfire Avenue (though it's initially more about mechs)
Coiling Dragon!!!!!!!!!!!
Transcending the Nine Heavens
Reverend Insanity (>.< probably the most philosophical... hehe)
Chronicles of Primordial Wars

 

Erm... Way of the Devil?
Martial Arts Master
My Daoist Life

 

I wish Devourer of Destiny was still an option to give BUT the world hates us so it's not
So I will recommend something else BUT know this it will never compare to it
FeralHeart (RRL)
The Almighty Martial Arts System
Awakening

 

i think the novels by er gen like I Shall Seal the Heavens might be something in that wheel house but because it is a cultivation novel there is killing. I have recently been reading 2 novels that has been slow paced in some way but it feels like a more rational approach to cultivation if it existed one is Pursuing Immortality and the other is Martial Arts Master where the mc joined a martial arts thing because he liked the girl and he worked hard on his martial arts they eventually got together and their relationship is the core of the story as much as the martial arts.

 

Ahhhh I just started reading Ascending, Do Not Disturb thanks to you and it's really everything I wanted. Thank you so much!!! <3333

 

Try King of Gods.

 

Zhu Xian

 

The World Online
(It does have some cultivation in it, but not the “usual “ CN style cultivation )

 

Nightfall fits

 

How on earth is Joy of Life not mentioned.

Anyway, yeah Mao Ni novels life JoL and Nightfall are your best bet for actual character development in wuxia/xuanhuan type stories.

Martial Arts Master is 50/50 romance and fighting, and the fighting is in a sports environment. I wouldn't say it has the best character development, but it's an excellent novel nonetheless. The romance is some of the best on this site.

Pursuing Immortality is a good one too, a little bit different from the regular cultivation novels. Cultivation Chat Group is also good, but probably not what you're looking for. PI has more character development and a slower pace compared to CCG, and isn't comedy.

Novels like King of Gods (how did that novel even end up in this thread?), or even better xianxia-like novels e.g. Forty Milleniums, Zhu Xian, ISSTH are not the ones you're looking for. While better, they're still far from Mao Ni's where character development and story is concerned. They're better written versions of typical xianxia, focusing on the flashy stuff. Ah no, you'd probably like Forty though, thinking some more about it.

And screw IET. IET shits all over character development. Reading IET for character development and thoughtful story is like cutting cheese with a chainsaw.

 

Transcending the Nine Heavens +1! I think this is exactly what you wanted, cultivation, mc using his smurts, mc cant always powerstomp, the characters are multidimensional, and the harem is kinda explained, doesnt just appear outta nowhere.

 

~~No problem!