Reading List 2026-10-18

You can see my previous reading lists Here: www.chaosdrifter.cc

Practice the Dao of MTL to read these novels.

I do the book selection, star rating, and 1-2 short comment on the book.

Novel Description now generated by DeepSeek, based on chapter titles and qidian book blurb.

Beast Taming From Zero Points ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ **(御兽从零分开始)**

(`beast taming` `Pokemon``female protagonist` `transmigration` `school setting` `monster evolution` `tournament arc` `weak to strong`)

This novel is a rare one in that it is a female MC, written by a female author, and that it is recommended by my wife. I do enjoy it though as it is very much a novel about what if pokemon is integrated into our daily lifes and the human race is among the stars. It is kinda slow paced, and some slice of life. Very funny and light hearted, MC is smart, cautious, and normal (not murderous). No romance, lots of academic and tournament arc. Good writing, I enjoyed it more than I expected, and it has 500 million words so can make for good binge reading

Qiao Sang opens her eyes to find herself transmigrated into the body of a middle schooler — in a world where everyone tames and battles monsters. Before she can even process this, there's a mock exam, and it's brutal: name the final evolution of the Stinkloach, list the planets humanity has colonized, identify beast types on sight. A 985-university graduate she may have been, but none of that prepared her for this. Welcome to the beast taming world, where her academic pride takes an immediate beating and the only way forward is to learn fast, tame hard, and claw her way up from zero.

The backbone of the story is the Beast Taming Codex — a system that tracks her beasts' proficiency and skill mastery, turning every training session, every battle, every weird little breakthrough into visible progress. She starts small with a Fire Fang Dog and a Desert-Tail Fox, feeding them Red Fungus Berries and drilling Fire Fang until the move clicks. The Codex's proficiency tracking makes the grind addictive: readers watch moves level up, evolutions unlock, and bonds deepen until "heart-to-heart connection" stops being a slogan and starts being a battle-winning mechanic. There's even a Ghost-type detour and an Eight-Tube Coral that keeps things strange and fun.

From there it escalates hard. School rivalries at Sacred Water Middle School, training plans drawn up like a coach prepping a championship squad, and then full tournament arcs where her beasts — Lu Bao, Ting Bao, Xiao Xunbao — throw down against monsters like the Abyssal Water Stallion, Explosive Fire Eagle, and Sky-Burning Bear on ice-water fields and shattered arenas. Moves like Torrential Return and Wan Jing Healing turn fights into tactical chess matches, and the two-in-one chapter dumps mean the battles come thick and fast.

It's a long-haul progression ride with a huge cast of beasts, a satisfying zero-to-hero climb, and enough tournament hype to keep you binging. If you like monster-taming school stories with a system that makes every training montage count, this one earns its spot on your list.

My University Is Different ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(我的大学不一样)
(urban fantasy cultivation academy system comedy progression modern setting)

Another Modern societal cultivation novel, good writing, no harem. kinda slice of life, not too much face slapping light hearted, easy read, just the kind I like

Xu Chen just wants to survive the gaokao and go to university — not to prison. So when two police officers show up at his door to deliver his admission letter, he's understandably confused. Then he reads the letter: National Cultivation University of Chongshan Immortal Estate. A double-first-class university? For cultivating immortals? Turns out the world he thought he knew is far stranger than he imagined, and his acceptance letter is the least weird thing about it.

At Chongshan, the freshmen ride immortal skiffs through the clouds, learn sect-transmitted techniques where heaven rewards diligence, and discover that every classmate is hiding terrifying potential. The academy runs on its own internal logic — teachers hand out mysterious "gifts from elders," class schedules mutate without warning, and the coursework includes things like the "Heavenly Secrets Art" and a course literally titled "My Class Is Very Important." The MC quickly learns that staying ahead means mastering techniques before his peers even know they exist — and that the "Battle Merit System" tracking his achievements might be glitching, because the numbers it's spitting out are absurd.

The scope escalates hard. What starts as a quirky campus comedy spirals into battlefield research projects, a shattered world, corpse-borrowing soul transfers, and a "生生造化箓" artifact compared to Nuwa creating humanity. By the late chapters, the MC is staring down threat level seven, shouting "with me, there is no enemy," and grinding through a war where efficiency is cold and merciless. There's even a chapter called "C Language Graduation" — make of that what you will.

If you want a modern-day cultivation academy story that starts with a confused teenager and a fake-out police escort, then balloons into world-breaking stakes with a battle-merit system that may or may not be broken, this one's a ride. The early chapters are pure campus fun; the later ones are pure escalation.

Cautiously Cultivating as an Earth Immortal Across Two Worlds ⭐️⭐️⭐️

(苟在两界修地仙)
(Cultivation Two Worlds Proficiency Panel Empire Setting Resource Gathering Cautious MC Farming)

A unique cultivation system build around a plot of land in your body to actually cultivate and grow. kinda combines the original farm in inner space novel + cultivation. Now also has a dual world setup, so it combines several tropes that I liked.

What if cultivation came with a mortgage? In an empire where technology and Earth Immortal Dao run side by side, ordinary MC Lu Yu gambles his life on a rushed Earth Immortal surgery to save his dying brother—successfully opening a three-foot Dao Soil and stepping onto the immortal path. There's just one catch: that Dao Soil demands constant feeding, and if he slips up, it's death and Dao annihilation. Broke and desperate, MC discovers his bronze mirror opens a dimensional gate to another world—and suddenly he has a plan: grow safely in the orderly empire, then raid the ruined ancient realm for everything it's worth.

The power system centers on the Dao Soil and a Proficiency Panel—MC's cheat that lets him grind skills and techniques with visible progress bars. He cultivates the Crimson Crow Sun-Refining Art, condenses Dao Seeds like the Crimson Crow and Earth Element varieties, and builds out his foundation with techniques like the Five Elements Earth Body and Azure Wood Life Qi. The empire side is delightfully bureaucratic: even immortal masters have to work jobs, and MC himself learns that "soft rice eaten hard" is a survival strategy. Meanwhile, the ancient realm is a nightmare of demons and buried civilizations where cultivation manuals are literally excavated from ruins.

The early chapters are a masterclass in scrappy progression: MC refines pills, brews "demon crow tonic soup," raises Crimson Crow Dao Soldiers who grumble like overworked employees, and trades life-saving favors in snake-tribe villages. Things escalate fast—demonic embryos, forbidden techniques, secret realms, and a cast that grows to include cold fairy masters, jade-skinned corpse ladies, and a Pure Yang sect full of ancient legacies. The two-world dynamic keeps every arc fresh: empire politics and military Earth Immortals on one side, buried Pure Yang ruins and Profound Yin demon sects on the other.

If you love a cautious, resource-hoarding MC who treats cultivation like a business and danger like a spreadsheet, this is your jam. The blend of empire-era mundanity and ancient-realm treasure hunting is genuinely addictive.

I Have a Cultivation Simulator ⭐️⭐️⭐️

(我有一个修仙模拟器)
(xianxia simulation regression weak-to-strong cultivation scheming fast-paced)

** MC gets strong very fast. His gold finger is kinda too OP. As he is able to inherit close to everything from the simulation without paying any consequences. So it snowballs very fast. It can be slow in the beginging, but after a few simulation iterations, the compounding effect kicks in and he is really dominating**

Zhou Qing opens his eyes in a xianxia world where cultivators stand at the top of creation and everyone else is basically scenery. His cheat? A Cultivation Simulator that lets him run his own life forward, again and again, then cash out the results. Every simulation ends with a settlement screen, and everything he earned inside it—cultivation base, techniques, alchemy skill, even talents—comes back with him. The first run is a humble, cautious life that ends in old age; the second is where he starts treating the whole thing like a puzzle box worth cracking open.

What makes the Simulator fun is that it isn't a free win. Zhou Qing has to actually live each run—ten years grinding Qi Refining, poking around the Wu Mountain Market, chasing rumors of a secret realm opening—and only then does the payout land. Early on he's a polite nobody collecting scraps and learning to brew top-grade pills; later he's stacking colored talents, snagging a Mountain-Sea artifact spirit, and out-thinking the "familiar faces" who keep assuming he's still that harmless kid from the first timeline. The chapter beats read like a checklist of escalating mischief: a trap laid and patiently waited out, a black-wind eagle, a so-called "grandpa in a ring" who may not be the blessing he looks like, and a slow-burn realization that everyone keeps forcing his hand.

That's the engine of the whole book. Each simulation nudges him further from "friendly and careful" toward "fine, let's flip the entire cultivation world upside down," and the payoff is watching a planner with infinite retries dismantle people who only get one life. By the later arcs he's throwing down with sword intent that spans billions of miles, walking into the spirit realm, and casually asking a demon lord's will why it looks so surprised to see him alive. If you like regression loops, alchemy side hustles, and a MC who graduates from survivor to world-shaker, this one moves fast and hits hard.

My Basement Connects to Another World ⭐️⭐️⭐️

(我家地下室连异界)
(Portals Game Elements Modern Fantasy Kingdom Building Overpowered MC Resource Gathering Cross-World)

MC is kinda of too cautious and slow, so the book take some patience to get to later when is growing more powerful. Basically in his basement he has a portal to the game world where he can bring stuff and power to and back. So he can dominate on both side.

Jiang Yuan stumbles onto a bizarre game forum where users earnestly discuss a "100% realistic" cross-era game. He treats it as entertainment—until he realizes he's actually been pulled into the game world. But there's a catch: everyone else logs in with their consciousness, while he's physically transported. That means everything he finds there—supernatural powers, rare items, treasures—can be brought back to reality. His ordinary, predictable life is over.

The power system revolves around "God Marks" (神痕), mysterious imprints that grant abilities and transform the body. Early on, Jiang Yuan plays it safe, hoarding resources and building his strength in secret. He loots his first fortune from the other world, masters magic, upgrades his gear, and expands his influence—even clashing with the Frostclaw Tribe and walking away with new powers. The progression is addictive: every trip back to the basement means new loot, new abilities, and a slightly more absurd real-world advantage.

Then the twist escalates. Jiang Yuan discovers he might be the only superhuman on Earth—and he's not shy about exploiting that. But when the game finally launches globally, players pour out of the starter village thrilled that their powers sync with reality, ready to run wild. They don't realize the man who owns the world's biggest corporation is the same person who sits at the top of the game's pantheon. Jiang Yuan just smiles warmly at the ambitious "fourth calamity" below him. The late-game chapters—divine descent, lightning marrow, island expeditions, bloodline pacts—show a story that keeps widening its scope while never losing the satisfaction of a hoarder who got in on the ground floor.

I, the Necromancer, Absolutely Love America ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

(我，死灵法师，超爱美利坚)
(Necromancer System Anti-Hero MC Urban Fantasy Corruption Dark Scheming MC Modern Setting)

Yeah, yeah, another american novel about killing lines and how bad america is. I guess I just like these kind of novels. This one is different in that the MC is smart and restraint, and it actually resolves a lot more about local politics, and religion than lich power. There are super power there for sure, but it is used sparingly in strategical ways. Like making miracles to one of the girls can be considered as a saint. Harem yes, but so far MC is more busy getting more powerful than getting laid.

Richard thought he'd be raising skeleton armies when he got the Necromancer System. Instead, it hands him dominion over death, flesh, and desire—and drops him into a modern America steeped in greed, power, and quiet monstrosity. As the world's only superhuman, he has zero interest in saving anyone. He just wants to climb onto a throne of death, one careful step at a time, while the people around him never realize what's walking among them.

What makes this one fun is the system's obsession with *knowledge*. Dissecting a corpse bumps up his Flesh and Bone lore; cracking an encrypted file on a "pleasure island" and watching the demons' atrocity footage grants mental points and high-level mental-pollution immunity. He levels through autopsies, "Painful Touch" experiments, and the "Hand of Magic" prerequisites—turning biology and corruption into raw stat gains. The early arc alone has him poking around a memorial's corpses, bargaining over recommendation letters, and "convincing" someone named Debbie that she really doesn't want her mother's business dragged before a judge.

Then the scope widens. New York stops being calm, a senator's informant starts sniffing around, and Richard quietly builds a second servant and a reputation as the guy who keeps the pension safe and tells you to call an ambulance. By the late chapters he's performing brain experiments, doing his first self-modification, and earning titles like "Fearless of Blades"—all while staging a "perfect performance," holding a moment of silence, and welcoming the governor with a smile. The chapter titles swing from "Wolf and Sheep" to "Santa Claus" to "Harvey's Law of the Jungle," and the tonal whiplash is half the appeal.

If you like a cold, methodical MC who treats an entire nation as a petri dish—progression through dissection, blackmail, and immaculate public relations—this is a nasty, addictive ride. No harem, just a man and his increasingly disturbing system.