Was hoping for some real history woven in, but 'Rise of the Black Plain' is pure cultivation fantasy. It's a web serial from the novelupdates scene, one of those system-based progression stories where the MC starts with a cursed land. I read a chunk of it a while back; the focus is on resource management, territory building, and breaking through cultivation stages against rival sects. If it were based on true events, we'd have records of someone inventing spiritual crops and fighting off demon beast hordes, which, last I checked, isn't in the history books. The worldbuilding borrows general xianxia tropes—think 'I Shall Seal the Heavens' but with more of a city-simulator angle. Still, it's a solid binge if you're into that specific niche of building power from literally nothing.
Sometimes these stories feel real because the struggle for resources and political maneuvering mirrors historical patterns, but the author isn't claiming any factual basis. The 'true event' here is probably just the universal desire to turn a wasteland into a paradise, which I can metaphorically get behind. My farm in Stardew Valley never quite managed that.