Recommendations Cultivation Novel with a Different Take on Society

Discussion in 'I'm Looking For...' started by tweprebet, May 16, 2021.

  1. tweprebet

    tweprebet Active Member

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    Most cultivation stories seem to fall into one of two worlds - an ancient (pls no link ty) one or a modern day with masquerade one. Other than that, you could pretty much swap worlds between cultivation stories and I don't think anybody would even notice anything aside from a few name changes.

    I'm pretty tired of it. Maybe tech develops along with cultivation. Maybe ancients not always the bestest. Maybe valuable knowledge (aka cultivation techniques) doesn't stay perfectly secret for thousands of years despite telling hundreds of people every year. Maybe people that have spent thousands of years contemplating (basically) Daoism aren't almost universally obsessed with face and treasures. Maybe getting rid of the need for trust (heavenly oaths) actually change human interactions. Etc. Etc. Etc.

    Any cultivation novels that actually have a world/society that's not just the same as every other cultivation story?
     
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  2. Fluffy Jellyfish

    Fluffy Jellyfish 『Number 1 Lolicon under Heaven』

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    This one is interesting to follow :blobpeek:
     
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  3. Scholar Monarch

    Scholar Monarch Well-Known Member

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  4. LollipoPReapeR

    LollipoPReapeR Frequent visitor of the Yellow Springs Resort

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    Even the ‘sci-fi’ cultivation novels are pretty much the same as the fantasy ones as the tech pretty much never makes a difference. At the end of the day they’ll still go back to punching each other.

    Daily Life of the Immortal King - This is pretty much a Chinese copy of Saiki Kusuo, buts it’s not bad. A decent enough parody.
    Cultivation Chat Group - The best parody/modern cultivation novel I’ve read. Doubt you haven’t heard of it though.
     
  5. Tolazytothink

    Tolazytothink Well-Known Member

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  6. Greater thunder

    Greater thunder Well-Known Member

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    Street Cultivation by Sarah Lin

    -open modern with martial artist - evolves to- Immortal. Key feature being immortality in modern day only means you don't die or age and have more personal power than some small corporations.

    Their influence varies due to interest, personality, ability to use their knowledge to still have skill and social position based edges,... so there are even cats paw immortals in debt. They used to be the typical tyrants, rulers and whatnot, but time and change ran over their influence for the most part.

    World of Cultivation - the world and its energies change. Which means cultivation and how to do it gets hit with a reset button every 10-20k years due to environmental shifts. MC is born in a time when spiritual energy is starting to dry up and ancient legacies help pinpoint other sources that could empower cultivators, but it still takes most of the novel for the new style to spread. Oh, and all factions set out to wage war or clean house internally before going out to fight for land and resources them and their inheritors could have. The first arc is of course a rather laidback affair with the zombie faced MC farming, selling produce, buying farming spells and looking for riches through honest work ( and some not so honest when he finds out his new mediocre strength and skill nets him a quick wallet filling from a duel he didn't want but went easier than he expected).

    It's still "ancient times", but we see definite progress and people work together to make enchanted towers and cities, invent new military training, animal husbandry,.... so its nice.
     
  7. KageTokage

    KageTokage Well-Known Member

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  8. gcool

    gcool Well-Known Member

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  9. tweprebet

    tweprebet Active Member

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    Looks like it should be decently different. Some other aspects mentioned in reviews sound like they should be pretty good too. I think I'll start reading this next. Thanks!

    That's very true. I was thinking less of the fighting and more of the setting. For example, maybe the crazy magic materials let them build really big easily, and magic abilities make it easy to control all aspects of the environment, so they have huge vertical farms in cities and not much of a supporting countryside - which would then impact how social structures and all that work. Things like that. Then they can go find fancy ways to describe punching each other.

    Yep, reading Cultivation Chat Group. It's a bit of a strange one, in that despite the fact the MC doesn't get a lot of the usual "my face, my treasure!" crap in the actual story, the author goes out of their way to make it clear that the MC is having a highly unusual experience, and for most people the world is actually the same old one in every other (masquerade) story.

    Will check out Daily Life of the Immortal King, thanks!
    Both of those sound really interesting. Street Cultivation seems pretty promising for a more integrated world. I also love the idea of cultivation methods changing over time. It's a really cool idea. Thanks!
     
  10. Reack

    Reack Well-Known Member

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    I have not read it but maybe The Heretic Peacekeeper: The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths by Jeremy Bay (Deathblade)
     
  11. armad224

    armad224 Well-Known Member

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  12. Uhoh_

    Uhoh_ Well-Known Member

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    Rupegia on Scribble Hub. It's not necessary a different society perse but their view on how the world was created, how the God's exist and their view on slavery is pretty interesting and new, at least to me.
     
  13. Despapa69

    Despapa69 Revered 17 Syllable Sage

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    40 Millenniums Of Cultivation maybe?
     
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  14. theoldmonster23

    theoldmonster23 Well-Known Member

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    Star Odyssey the best sci fi cultivation novel I’ve read bar none. Technology matters and has a impact on cultivation. The young people reign over the universe and actually make decisions in it dude to the change of technology. Necropolis immortal is a Ancient cultivation novel with well a big twist the path of cultivation has... changed. Literally about exploring tombs and trying to figure out and catch up the legacies of the ancient immortals. Has a heavy Feng Shui influence, makes it completely different than just cultivate, then more resources, new world etc. etc. Spirit Vessel is a cultivation novel with politics and intrigue it’s not a replica of any other novel I can think of tbh. It’s unique in its cultivation system and the world is very rich and makes you want to keep reading to explore it. Immortal devil transformation also has a heavy political feel. The mc can’t just go around trying to slaughter people bc his actions have consequences. Politics controls this World of Cultivation.
     
  15. estriole

    estriole Member

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    maybe The Legendary Mechanic

    the world setting is a "game world" but the main theme of the game is Galaxy / Sci fi / Space.

    MC somehow become a NPC in that world... there's also "player" that NPC will think really weird because they are immortals, did not have genitals (cannot strip), and somehow crazy (do anything for quest)...

    The world building itself quite good... and the power system also quite solid and fresh...
     
  16. Darius Drake

    Darius Drake A poster of verbose posts

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    Definitely, was going to recommend that one myself. Added a link to the quote.

    In this story, the World of Cultivation has developed for, well, millennium. Cultivation Technology not only exists, but is also commonplace. The story literally starts with the MC running through a dump while the flying dump truck dumps a load a garbage so that he can pick through and get the choice garbage to fix and sell for a profit, with his weird (unique) possibly sentient flying sword-pet-thing. Humanity has been in a war with a varied species from another world (called Demons) which is... overlapping with the MC's world for millennia, even with humanity having been made into slaved of the Demons sometime in the distant past. Ancient Cultivation Techniques attempted to have people be good at whatever they put their mind to, while Modern Cultivation Techniques attempt to have people become hyper specialised in one thing. That is to say, there are Administration Cultivators, who develop only their mind and their multitasking ability. There are Crafting Cultivators, who focus primarily on developing dextrous hands and the abilities that assist them in crafting.

    While the MC DOES use numerous Ancient Cultivation Techniques he gains access to due to his story-cheat, the story doesn't present Ancient Cultivation Techniques as being inherently "better" than Modern Cultivation Techniques. They're just "broader", which makes them perfect for the MC who starts as a crafter but also enjoys fighting on the front lines, and basically can't stop himself from doing a bit of everything whenever he gets a chance.


    Special Mention to the Combat Content/Soul Land/Douluo Dalu Series. It does NOT start out fitting this request, with the MC reincarnated into a near stereotypical Cultivation Setting after breaking his Hidden Weapon Sect's Laws, learning how to make a weapon (and successfully making it) that only the Sect Master is supposed to be able to ATTEMPT to learn, simply to sate his curiosity. This is mostly done so that he can reincarnate into a new world with knowledge of a dozen special techniques that nobody else in the world knows. The only difference being that to rank up you need to kill a Sacred Beast of a certain age and absorb the ring released after it dies.

    As the series progresses, however, so does the world. The first book, fairly standard setting, and I talked about that above. In the Second Book, the Continent from the First Book has been in contact with a second, newer Continent, which primarily uses Spiritual Energy to power Technology, rather than developing themselves to the limit. The two Continents went to war, and they both kept control over their own landmasses, before starting communicating with each other. In the Third Book, it's commonplace for people to augment their power by fighting in Mechanised Power Suits, and it's possible to artificially replicate any Spirit Beast, and thus the Ring it produces, so long as it's below a certain specific threshold. And, in the Fourth Book, it's the Age of Space Travel, with the story literally starting on a different planet, and the MC training as a Space Pilot.
     
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  17. Ddraig

    Ddraig Frostfire Dragon|Retired lurker|FFF|Loved by RNG

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  18. tweprebet

    tweprebet Active Member

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    Heh. I've uh, dropped every single of those novels. Mostly not because of the worlds/societies, but I have to say I don't think any of them really excelled their either. Maybe Star Odyssey would eventually get there, I didn't get all that far. But the tech integration seemed fairly poor from what I did read - mostly just an excuse for some kind of point system they could use to make "over 9000!" jokes with, or whatever.
     
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  19. tweprebet

    tweprebet Active Member

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    Wow. I admit I haven't even finished the first chapter yet, but even just the scene that's been set so far with a huge polluted dump full of broken flying swords and stuff... yeah. Really cool to see something exploring some kind of negative byproduct associated with cultivation. Though the parallels with electronics are a bit glaringly unsubtle...

    Though it's not so perfect. Apparently all the magitech likes to both release radiation and explode. I find it a little tough to imagine people readily adopting tech that might irradiate them and then blow them up when it gets a little worn down. Would you buy a magic bomb-toaster? It'll toast real good until you've kept it for too long and then it'll blow up your kitchen. The techno babble is also already getting a little grating. He's got a watch that detects beasts/garbage trucks using vibrations. Vibrations of what? Who knows, it's not said. It's like somebody coming up to you and saying the green component of their favorite color is 102 - a very strange combination of highly specific and incredibly vague.
     
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  20. Despapa69

    Despapa69 Revered 17 Syllable Sage

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    Yeah it's quite confusing. The author has taken a daring task of combining cultivation with Sci-fi. I think it's alright