Here are my favorite progression fantasy series that I’ve read so far:

• Cradle by Will Wight
• Mage Errant by John Bierce
• Arcane Ascension and Weapons and Wielders by Andrew Rowe
• Bastion by Phil Tucker
• The Weirkey Chronicles and Street Cultivation by Sarah Lin
• Soul Relic by Samuel Hinton
• The Umbral Storm by Alec Hutson
• Super Powereds by Drew Hayes
• Portal to Nova Roma by J.R. Mathews
• The Eldest Throne by Bernie Anés Paz
• Jekua by Travis M. Riddle
• The Enchanter by Tobias Begley
• Eight by Samer Rabadi
• Morcster Chef by Actus
• Ascendant by Michael R Miller
• God of Gnomes by Demi Harper
• Heaven Fall by Leo Petracci
• The Mage of Shimmer Mountain by Adam Sampson

Note that some of these have stats, but all of them take place on a real world. I consider LitRPG to be only those that take place inside a virtual reality game.

John Bierce’s Mage Errant is another highly regarded ProgFantasy series - that has recently published its last book in the ‘initial series’. I fully expect other works in the same setting though.

Personally I’m also a big fan of Sarah Lin’s work in general specifically Street Cultivation and Weirkey Chronicles.

Tao Wong is another very prolific writer in this space - his non LitRPG series, and IMO his best work is the series A Thousand Li - which is a more traditional Chinese Cultivation setting - but without being a Translated model. Some ProgFantasy fans find the Progression in this slow.

Iron Prince by Bryce O’ Connor should fit the bill. Couldn’t put it down after getting into it. The author posts new chapters on his subreddit as well, and book 2 should be releasing soon. The Mage Errant series by John Bierce is another one you can try out as well

These are kind of non-standard progfantasy series recommendations but imo they fit the mold, especially if you want to steer away from gamelit or litrpg.

Embers of Illeniel - good story but it gets dark pretty quick and ramps up the brutality pretty hard by the end. Think Battlefield Earth meets Silmarillion. Darker prequel to the Mageborn series, which is another good softcore prog fantasy series in itself. Both series build up to over the top cataclysmic conclusions like cradle does, though limits itself to world level cataclysm.

Codex Alera - a bet about Pokémon and a lost Roman legion gone very right. Jim butcher wrote this series on a bet that he couldn’t write a story from just two wildly disparate ideas. He technically lost because there’s a whiff of starcraft in there just for funnies. Each book represents a step up in power or skill very similar to cradle.

Neither one has the xanxia influence though, you might try to find a translation of Heavenly Sword, Dragon Sabre for that. I read it years and years ago but haven’t seen a good translation in a long time

Millennial Mage is really good, a mix of progression, slice of life, and action. Despite the name sounding like it’s some sort of “magic in the modern world setting”, it’s actually a totally unique world and with unique magic and doesn’t really have much to do with millennials other than some vague notions of being burdened by debt and dealing with a world that their education didn’t prepare them for.

Ooh, definitely following for recommendations. I just finished Cradle and quite enjoyed it. I’ve never read Mother of Learning though. How’s that?

I enjoyed Beware of Chicken a hell of a lot more than I thought I would! Fun series with the first two volumes on Kindle and the rest on Royal Road. I didn’t think much of it given the title but it really snuck up on me.