Chinese novels with MLs that are well-received in the Chinese community, meets at least one:

1. Rank highly on novels websites like Qidian and Zongheng (mostly QI)

2. Are strongly recommended on novel recommendation websites (eg at least 1k recommendation upvotes or at least 7.8/10 or 4/5 ratings with 1k reviews)

3. Commonly recommended on forums, search engines and blog posts (eg zhihu, sohu)

Notes:

There are novels that meet the criteria but not included like Lord of the Mysteries and Perfect World. May add them in later.

I picked the novels according to what caught my eyes (mostly comedy) or have more well known donghua adaptations (eg soul land, btth) so there may be many novels not mentioned

*Well received may not always mean good or well written, they may just be wish-fulfilment, OP-MC novels that generally cater to many, therefore, highly ranked. (eg popular 'junk food' novels).

This list is used as a compilation for me to ‘try out’. I will update my reviews if I’ve read something here. While I may not have read the novels, I may have read/ watched the dongman adaptations.