How would you bring technology into a fantasy world? Make sense of the magics? Feed people and get rid of the corrupt nobles? This is specifically on developing a city or territory, not:
- Developing a dungeon/core (see my other list: https://www.novelupdates.com/viewlist/10742/)... more>>

First, a few worthy mentions that aren't on NU:
1. Castle Kingside (rewrite) - a lot of inspiration from Release that Witch, imo improved! Warning: it's slow. Kingdom only begins around c60ish.
2. The iron teeth - although territory development comes late in the story, it's well done and exotic, being based on a goblin kingdom
3. 1632 (published book) - an American village goes back to the 30 years war. It's much less fantastical, but has a lot of similar elements to other kingdom building novels.
4. The Eagle's Flight - highly intricate fantasy webnovel
5. Defiance of the fall
6. Randidly Ghosthound - neither Randidly nor Defiance of the Fall focus on kingdom building, but they both have elements related to setting up a post-apocalypse system city - complete the quest to get the village crystal/coin!
7. The Expansion (Legend of the Arch Magus) - [have not yet read] - recommendation from Hitexh in the comments
8. Enlightened Empire - weaker than the others <<less

Novels I enjoyed/am planning to read in the future. A lot are in the kingdom building, some otome game, some reincarnation. Novels are generally ranked... more>> by page from favorite to least favorite. <<less

Captivating storytellings. 

Well first off these are my masterpiece novels and you can be rest assured each of novel here are quality novels that has something for everyone on each of them. But it will heavily depend on your taste whether you will like them or not. I will leave out description for what to expect so even though they are my masterpiece you might not enjoy. Pick carefully.... more>>

And Please ignore the ranking i love each and every novel here equally they cannot be ranked as  each one of them excels in their own genre. And another advise dont trust NU ratings blindly. Who knows you might enjoy the novel very much even though ratings are low. Low-ratings doesnt mean bad novel. I have found myself there and sometimes even though NU ratings were low i really enjoyed the story.

Another thing is there are very less JP/Kr novels here cause good CN novels are wholesome while KR novels are short and sweet but not wholesome. About jap novels though,i have lot of grievance with them, None of Jap novel MC feel humane except the 1% jp novel Mc. Yes i feel sociopathic, Hypocritical, Genocidal, Arrogant, Racist, hotblooded CN mc more humane then jap beta c*ck pu*sy Gary stu mc.  <<less

I have made a review and rating for every novel I've read on novelupdates. Since they don't have the user friendly capability of sorting a user's read list by rank I made one for myself ordered by best/enjoyed the most to least. The ranking within the same number of stars may not be right because it is usually from different genres, too different to compare with each other haha. All in one spot. The bottom of the list that are my lower rated and unranked/dropped novels, I have moved to  a new list "All Novels I've Read Sorted By Rating (3 Stars & Below + Dropped)" due to a list only having a max of 100. The... more>> other weaker alternative is the Reviews section in my profile but it can only be sorted by likes and date of review not by rank. The reason I want to put my rating and reviews straight in the list is because you can't search for a specific user's review in the novel page if there are too many reviews. You will have to search one by one. Its easier to straight up  see why I put the novel in a particular list plus my review in the list itself. Sigh, novelupdates is really not user friendly.

PS: I've made another list to put all the novels I've read rated 3 Stars and below and all the dropped novels because this list is getting long. In the future, this will be basically my Top 100 list. The others will be from ranked 101 onwards. <<less

A ranking list of the best to good novels set in ancient china.... more>>

Note: Only novels without xianxia/xuanhuan tag are considered for this list. The xianxia novels are being added to another list still being made.(Di Wang Gong Lue and Peerless also belong on this list, but I am still in the middle of them). <<less

Essentially, either a weak or strong protagonist has subordinates or people who are all very loyal and protective/possessive of him. Most of them are stronger than the MC. There are mainly male protagonists, but female protagonists are included.... more>>

NO HAREM OR ROMANCE-FOCUSED NOVELS! Contains mainly friendship or comradeship-focused Novels.

Other Novels/Mangas that can't be found on novelupdates: Eleceed (Manhwa), How to Survive as a Terminally-Ill Dragon (Manhwa) <<less

Isekai and transmigration with good plots. A lot of them focused on world building and the occasional kingdom building
Also has unique reincarnation and time traveling stories. ... more>>

Mind the tags as the list contain yuri and yaoi <<less

Need that starting from humble beginnings progressing to vast empires and kingdoms fix? Or a weak MC that grows with a small territory into becoming... more>> a broken MC with a large kingdom. Novels suggested are based around territory-building and character-growth.  (Some may contain romance/harem tags) <<less

https://www.scanupdates.com/viewlist/35/... more>>

  <<less

I've been faithfully reading webnovels (Chinese, Korean, and English) for 10+ years. The list is based on my taste mainly neutral evil to neutral good personality MC and decently paced novel with less fillers than the standard webnovel. Most of these novels are written by well-experienced authors. ... more>>

"Well-experienced" meaning he/she has written over 2000+ chapters of webnovel before the novel was created!

I don't like romance, especially harem in my action/adventure novels but I make an exception if the novel is really good.

Starting from tier Decent-, they are not in order because these novels are just "decent enough" to kill your time.

I would not recommend rank 1-15 if you are a newbie reader because it's gonna spike up your standards in webnovels.

If you think that the novel is worthy enough to be put in this list, then comment below. I'll check whether I've read it or not. <<less

This list includes web novels focused on making money (or bartering in the case of more primitive settings) using modern knowledge. Some of them are small-scale business owners, whereas others create kingdoms and focus on macro-economics. 
Some are gxb, others are BL, but barely any harems!! The harems included are basically inoffensive. I usually stay away from game elements like systems or cheats, but they're kind of inevitable in the genre. ... more>>

All of them are completed on mtl! 

On other websites: 

-Lady of the Lord From the East 

- The Landlord and His Wife 

- Mountain People  <<less

Any kind of influence building like kingdom, clan ,buisness, gang,  secret organisation, etc, is considered.... more>>

Novels aren't ranked, so ignore the ranking. <<less

Are you interested in reading novels with a great plot and have no romance or harem? ... more>>

Then, this is the place you are looking for! I can guarantee you that the novel in this recommendation list is what you are looking for!

Also, if you want, you can also follow this list for more new stories that will be added here in the future! 

Btw, you can also recommend to me a shounen story without romance and harem in the comment section if you want. <<less

These are the novels I like with male protagonists. ... more>>

No romance so far. Once it has, I'll remove it from the list.

Feel free to recommend one.

PS. Not ranked. <<less

Another story is: "Tyranny of Steel" The story progress something like Release That Witch. MC makes Austria become a power house by introducing gun technology... more>> in an era of cold weapon. Some reader says its unacceptable since MC does not have super power like the witches in Release That Witch but the author keep mentioning the MC have an almost photographic memory and he is an engineering soldier who focus on technology knowledge. Warning: MC is grooming his teenage fiancé to be his wife. There are s*x scenes too. (Recommended but with warning: Adult/Mature tag.)  <<less

BL novels where there is a focus on creating infrastructure!

I like sane, smart and scheming characters. ... more>>

My Royalroad recommendations ~

-Fodder

-Castle Kingside

-Arrogant Young Master Template A Variation 4

-Ave Xia Rem Y

-Beware of Chicken

-Chrysalis

-The Red Lands

-The Rise of Lord <<less

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. I also put in some untranslated novels from some favourite poor to rich authors from the jjwxc website that I desperately hope someone would translate in the comments T.T... 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 which are still in MTL (high-readability, guaranteed minimum brain cell mortality) and not yet translated:... more>>

- Bulgarian Empire (same author of Holy Roman Empire)
- Holy Roman Empire (60 chapters translated, the rest just go to MTL, high quality MTL is the reason translators didn't bother to translate it in the first place)
- Rise of Rurik (thank you Zurdonx for recommendation)
(More will be updated later) <<less

You will find quite a diverse list of suggestions here. ... more>>

Recommendations are welcome

List is not in any particular order mainly because it is a bit hard to rank my favourites <<less

No description.

Political intrigue with romance on sidelines but no Harem. Check comments section for untranslated suggestions. You can read the raws for them. All are HE. 

chinese relaxing novels i have read, will read, or currently reading.... more>>

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usually about slow life, rural, farming, josei, reincarnation/transmigration, slice of life, fantasy, romance, historical, and isekai novels

⊱⋅•⋅ note: no yaoi or yuri on this list. <<less

Novels that are in this list mainly have to do with some sort of territory management or kingdom building. The BL romance in these novels might be a subplot or play a bigger role in the story. If I find some novels that have these things outside of NU I will include them here.... more>>

Rankings ;

Active ; Novels that are featured in this list, are still being updated regularly 

Hiatus ; The group that's translating a novel puts it on hold for awhile

Inactive ; If a novel hasn't been updated for more than two months, It'll be labeled as Inactive but I'll still keep it within the list. <<less