My personal list for this niche genre of novels - will be adding as I read. Charisma and leadership do not come easy, but they sure as hell come naturally for these protagonists. Charismatic MCs with significant focus on character and ability growth, kingdom / army / career development & management, and/or wholesome friendships / brotherhood. Romance (if any) will only be subplots, not the main focus. I've put short descriptions and summaries of every novel, plus my thoughts on them.... more>>

Arranged from best > worst > boring reading experience. I change my ratings often. Feel free to recommend more or point out any mistakes in my sorting of this list. Cheers!

*[CC] - Collecting Companions, aka collecting and raising loyal companions. Brotherhood, friendship, blablabla. [CC] focuses more on picking up and raising companions without necessarily having to develop a full kingdom/empire.

*[KB] - Kingdom Building. I'll use this abbreviation as a general umbrella term for anything to do with (insert noun)-building and management. [KB] by association would also include raising the people in that empire/kingdom, but the novels focus more on the development/management part. <<less

My fave 60s to 90s novels~

Preferably transmigration.... more>>

No particular order, contributions/recommendations in comments are appreciated. <<less

No description.

In BL stories set in modern times, gongs are almost always business tycoons. Well, here's a list of shou MCs who are focused on building their own business empires. In these stories, romance is present but may not be the primary focus compared to MC's financial wheeling and dealing. ... more>>

This list is for modern era stories only. As usual, I rank entries in order of how enjoyable I think they are + how well they fit the theme. <<less

I just put some of the Slice of Life novels I enjoined into a list

These are just a bunch of Chinese Novels that I’ve liked, mostly transmigration but all are Romance Novels. I will update this list every time I... more>> remember the forgotten novels that I liked. These are all BG novels. Please recommend some to me too. <<less

Title says it all.

List of novels in my To Read list for my favourite trope, rags to
riches! To my best guess anyway since I haven't read them XD. Also
usually slice of life. ... more>>

I'll also put what made me want to pick the story up. Just be warned
that I will delete the story from the list after I've read so the list
will frequently change. I like to view the cover art of the book, and be
able to see a lot of novel details on the list in one place instead of
having to click to the web novel page. I also include any translation
detail like where to find them if they aren't on novelupdates so I can
read the whole story without getting stuck halfway because of no
translations. Not in any particular order but I try to put similar
novels, either in expected tropes or vibes together. And the incompleted
ones at the back.  Recommendations are very welcome! <<less

Novels with a focus on food, cooking, running a food business or just simply cooking for pleasure full of descriptions to make you drool

No description.

- protagonist is given a second chance (cooking, business, corporate, etc)... more>>

- modern day <<less

Hidden gems for me.  Searching needles in the haystack means trying to find very rare thing that you want under harsh circumstances and usually its very hard to find that. No yaoi and related stuffs. No adolescence, ecchi and harem. I have been reading light novels for 8 years or so and I will add whenever I come into something cool. I am up for your recommendations whether its ln or not.... more>>

No order in the list. <<less

If you like light-hearted family stories set in China during 1960’s to 1990’s with fluff, comedy, cute children, cooking, and farming in the mix then... more>> this list is for you. <<less

Mainly novels about MCs reincarnating/transmigrating to the past, whether in their own body or different person to change their life using their future knowledge.... more>>

Focuses more on kingdom building, military history, and financial markets.

*Alternate history <<less

Mc helps/saves a lot of peoples lives. 

The end of days, and the new beginnings.

Lovers who work together in their respective careers. Involves romance that emanated from similar work settings... more>>

- does not include showbiz  <<less

Stories of people focussed on creating and/or maintaining a kingdom or any industry (usually businesses). Most often they become influencial.... more>>

 Some may have romance, others it's not a focus at all. <<less

Hi, I'm Sable a translator at Sable Translations and other places like KnoxT and Chrysanthemum Garden.... more>>

this list is going to be of novels that I am currently translating and plan to translate!

I'm a sucker for ancient Chinese setting and mpreg and marriage so u might see some of that. <<less

My favorite novels i’ve read so far, it’s a mix of interstellar, bl, modern, zombies and world hopping

No description.

My takes after reading 100+ webnovels.... more>>

Male MCs only. No BL. I tend to like fantasy/sci-fi with a slice of life or romance focus the most rather than pure action. I find novels that have nothing but fight scenes very boring. <<less

These are my fav novel recommendations of Ancient China. Imo, these novels are good and rather satisfying both story and MC personality. In these lists, none of novels have any naive and s*upid MC. And every novel has satisfying face slapping drama that relief lung and heart.... more>>

Even though in Novel Updates, these novels mostly aren't complete, you can find on another sites for complete chapters. Because i only list novel which are complete. <<less

Novels that contains a lot of informations related to it's industry/field. Well, some may not but at least they're career oriented yknow?... more>>

I don't include the overly mainstream ones unless I absolutely love them (re: entertainment)

Personally I prefer reading the manhwa adaptations of the Korean novels, btw, since most of them haven't been translated/dropped/still too far to catch up. <<less