I am looking for a novel that has a pretty normal MC without special bloodline or cheats equipment, his cultivation took years to level up just like other people, kind of like I shall seal the heaven, but Meng Hao was sort of descendant of a strong family, so he was bound to be special anyway. Both female or male lead is acceptable.
Chronicles of Primordial Wars - MC is just isekai'd to superhuman stone age. No cheats, just pure intellect and hard work RMJI - the start was great but slowly went to shit Renegade Immortal
Charm of Soul Pets maybe? He did started off pretty disadvantaged but then again he does have a constantly mutating fox as a cheat...
Cultivation novel with no cheat.... I'd like to read one (more?) like those. If by "normal MC without [..] cheats equipment" you mean one where MC's cultivation isn't put on hold while he is constantly sent to random domains to get "the next great item" sometimes in form of "the next great powerup weapon, legacy item, elixir creating bead, bloodline, bodypart to combine with or dragon/orc form to grow" (which item without fail becomes devalued then MC has to go get "newitem" instead of actually cultivating) but won't mind an MC whose main cultivation is progressive, while having a system, Monster Paradise (/series/monster-paradise/). Years on cultivation is the norm in his world, consistently. Having read all the reviews on that page (all 54 by the time of this writing), in my view, most of the negative reviews disliked that it isn't a drama dressed in a cultivation novel, where the MC cares more about the opinions of others than about his cultivation.
Technically that isn't true. First of all, the story does not have to be about an MC who conquered the heavens. It could simply be a story about a person surviving in a cultivation world to the best of their abilities. You know, like 99% of the books we read. Even if you wanted to make them the strongest, that is also possible through a series of coincidences. I mean who could have known a shitty painter can rule a country and kills millions of people?
'coincidences' and 'lucks' are cheats to for me, a normal guys wont always had that many 'coincidences' and 'lucks' to begin with. hard working mc maybe oke
Is that really the strongest? Sounds more like the biggest beneficiary from coincidence. Especially if those coincidences depend on items, meaning external strength. If its stolen, game over (which by coincidence, won't happen). What's the name of that painter?
"The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare. In fact, the monkey would almost surely type every possible finite text an infinite number of times. " It's not about them getting cheats as infinite amount of failures led to 1 lucky success over an infinite period of time. Well it's a cultivation novel so strength is gotten via finding herbs and breaking through. If you reach the highest stage, you become the strongest. What is the first thing you do if you get a time machine? (meme)
That sounds hard. Back to OP, I've tried to look through stories I've read and find something that fits the criteria, unfortunately, nada. Super Gene started out (almost) that way, then, yeah. So (light novel, manga and anime), Tate no Yuusha no Nariagari?(Shield Hero) Or maybe perhaps Tensei shitara Slime Datta Ken. (the "cultivation" uses a skill and its not a world with cultivation per se.)
I read the first chapter, and the moment I know the MC awake in the graveyard full of immortal tombs, he had been destined to become special somewhat... Not really, their cheat is just one of the factors, but not the main defining of a character as the MC. I had finished that, and it's actually a web novel you know...
Dungeon Defense - MC is the weakest demon lord but uses his wits to manipulate everyone and everything (edit: wait sorry, this isnt a cultivation novel) A Will Eternal - same author as ISSTH, this one is full of luck but his wits and hardwork makes the most of it that i dont even know if he really has cheats or he is just THAT OP because he doesnt stop on finding ways to avoid death. it depends on what you consider as a cheat, because like Meng Hao, the MC in AWE also found an item that helped him a bit in the initial part of the story but plays little in the overall plot. A World of Cultivation
Molting the Mortal Coil. MC is a Reincarnator from Earth, who reincarnates into a Cultivation World as a minor child in an affluent family. Not long after, MC's Family's Young Master, who's about the MC's age, kills a child on the side of the road for being in the way while the MC is following him around. Not long later, MC is trapped in a tunnel for a few days, and thus misses the extermination of his family by that child's older brother who felt exterminating the entire family was justified. MC manages to escape his family's past rivals (who feel it's open season on the survivors) with his life, and a long while later he ends up joining a sect. A bit after that, the MC runs into a hidden repository of cultivation resources, realises how much of an idiot he was with his past cultivation method, and starts cultivating a new one. He starts running into cheats then, but has already long passed the age of "genius" and is instead grows to the stage of "reasonable for his age". Additionally, cheats are not uncommon in this world, there's plenty of people who regularly find cheats and other advantages with which they show how much better they are than everyone else by beating them down by force. MC is reasonable and tries to avoid that type of thing as long as he can, accepting early on that he shouldn't swear vengeance for the murder of his family because it would probably be suicidal.
Cultivation Chat Group, unless you count MC's having tons of luck & dozens of golden thighs as cheats The only downside of this (based on your requirement), is that MC's cultivation is very fast
MC has cheats tho, his initate talent " entering dream" is a huge fucking cheat. Senior White is a cheat. He gains millions of cheats through sheer luck.
When you try so hard to not follow cliches you end up following them. This review exemplifies it very well I would have still given it a try but there is no guarantee that it will get completed