The Dao of Magic
Andries Louws
Drew Liam is a cultivator capable of crushing mountains and rerouting rivers with a flick of his fingers, yet he finds himself sitting on a mountain far from home. What begins as a grounded, modern-day cultivation adventure expands into a sprawling progression epic spanning savage beast seas, ancient mage orders, and looming cataclysms. Originally a Royal Road webserial with over 3 million views, now fully edited in ebook form, The Dao of Magic follows Drew as he forges his own Dao, stepping through foundational realms and beyond while confronting the brutal costs and wonders of true cultivation.
Progression: Western cultivation / Dao progression with explicit realm ladder. Drew Liam cultivates as a classic xianxia cultivator (mountain-crushing, river-rerouting power) but in a modern-inflected world. Structured advancement through cultivation realms is central: Book 1 establishes Drew as an established cultivator, Book 2 advances toward the Foundation Realm, and Book 3 explicitly confirms "stepping into the Foundation Realm" as a quantified breakthrough that unlocks new power, challenges, and encounters with savage beasts and an ancient order of mages. Progression is not metaphorical - realm breakthroughs, power scaling, and Dao comprehension are the primary plot engine, verified via Goodreads descriptions: "I'm Drew Liam, a cultivator, capable of crushing mountains" and "Now that Drew has become even more powerful by stepping into the Foundation Realm, new challenges await." Additional LitRPG-adjacent staging via the companion series Skeleton in Space shows the author's systemic approach, but The Dao of Magic itself is pure cultivation realm progression.
Goodreads
