Here's are my personal thoughts. Note, however, that I haven't read too many things off webnovel or translations, so my list is heavily biased towards western takes on cultivation.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Cultivation. The current King of Progression Fantasy. Staggeringly good. Amazing characters, strong motivation, a beautiful system, rich world, and fast pace, it's a dream come true to read.
Hook: Lindon is Unsouled and forbidden to learn the sacred arts, so he forges his own Path.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Cultivation with only slight academic focus. A great mix of classic progression with some top tier worldbuilding. The world is unique and interesting, characters empathetic, and their struggles all too real.
Hook: Scorio will rise from the ashes to conquer the ten layers of hell.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Soft cultivation / isekai crossover with a unique magic system and expansive setting. If there's one thing I always love about Sarah Lin, its her worldbuilding. And now, she's written my favourite magic system as well.
Hook: A truly unique cultivation system with an amazing setting.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads, royal_road
Summary: Slice of life cultivation novel, very wholesome, about a reincarnated person trying to get away from Xianxia tropes. Incredibly wholesome and a pure delight to read.
Hook: A laugh-out-loud, slice-of-life martial-arts fantasy about . . . farming????
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Female-lead cultivation novel with a hard magic system. A young woman with a broken soul joins her brother to find a solution in the wider world.
Hook: Determined to fix her soul, Raysha ventures out into the world with her brother, only to stumble into events larger than they realise.
Disclaimer: I wrote this one, and its currently free on Amazon.
Links: review, royal_road
Summary: LitRPG and cultivation parody about a sentient rock rolling down a mountain.
Hook: By a stroke of fate, a stone gains sentience and sets out on a grand quest to touch grass.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Cultivation in a Greco-Roman setting, with amazing characters and absolutely fantasy dynamics.
Hook: The Scarlett Son and Son of Rome shake the heavens.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: A sect style western cultivation with multiple PoVs and rich worldbuilding.
Hook: Deryn escapes from servitude and joins the Sharded Few.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: A cultivation story with the faintest hint of LitRPG, featuring elemental powers and great worldbuilding.
Hook: Once a soldier, now an outcast. Luca must overcome fate as he walks the path of a cultivator.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads, royal_road
Summary: Scifi cultivation. It's not often we see wuxia in space. It's not common we see it done well, either.
Hook: Matt meets a mysterious couple, who sponsor him on the Path of Ascension.
Summary: Traditional cultivation manhua packed with action-packed, gorgeous art... and multiple wives.
Hook: Yang Kai goes from trainee disciple to shattering the heavens.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Light progression featuring a relic hunting dragon-rider. Rich worldbuilding combining multiple mythologies and a fusion of cultivation and Indiana Jones.
Hook: Twillo and Adventus herald the recoming of the Age of Dragons.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: A school based cultivation story with a strong emphasis on tactical team combat, and a small and well-developed cast of characters.
Hook: Cam and his panda-friend head to the Ephemeral Academy.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Epic fantasy with some progression. The Chosen One trope is delightfully flipped on its head.
Hook: The arrival of the Hero was worse than anyone could have imagined.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Slice-of-life cultivation. Academia/sect focus. Chill read with slower pacing and lower stakes.
Hook: A young girl from the slums is found to have the Talent to become an Immortal.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: A Cradle-inspired cultivation story set in a fantasy world with African roots.
Hook: African inspired cultivation. Somadina starts his journey.
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Cultivation with sect focus. Good premise, slow pacing, tends towards slice-of-life.
Hook: Given a chance at immortality, can Wu Ying grasp the fleeting opportunity?
Links: review, amazon, goodreads
Summary: Reincarnation/cultivation novel. If you just want to read an incredibly overpowered protagonist and don't mind them sounding like a teenager off /r/iamverysmart, go for it...
Hook: Cultivation. Magic. Empowering unwitting animals!