I know it’s hella problematic, but the web novel reverend insanity/master of gu introduced me to the genre a long time ago, and I’d love a tv show/movie with that style of magic system. Anything vaguely similar would be dope if you know what I’m talking about.
Grandmaster of demonic cultivation is the closest I’ve found.
Edit: Thank you everybody :mission-accomplished-1: :mission-accomplished-2: I now have enough content to make the void of capitalist realism feel less empty. I really appreciate all the recs.
Cultivation in manga tends to be lackluster usually due to them being rushed novel adaptations. It's still not original high art or anything, but it probably exacerbates the issue. The genre obviously has the appeal of power growth in a way that makes sense compared to the popular video gamey level systems that are (were?) getting popular in anime and manga. Getting to level 10 by getting enough experience and gaining a new ability is boring, reaching the Golden core stage after condensing your internal qi from gas, to liquid, to solid state then surviving a heavenly tribulation is way more interesting, combined with different quality levels of cultivators due to how solid their "foundation" of their power is. There's also a few fun tropes like deathtrap dungeons a (very) loose coalition of factions enter only for horrible casualties to happen either from the dungeons or from other people, to stuck up rich kids being minor villians, to silly ability names and titles for the characters. (Universe Lord Nine Blades struck using his strongest technique, "Fading Light Chases the Nine Swallows.")