Novels like Lord of Mysteries by what you loved: mystery, steampunk, Sequence system, cosmic horror. Six picks with English status + 2 bonus comparisons.
You finished Lord of Mysteries and now everything else reads like plain water. If you just want more of that world, the official sequel Circle of Inevitability is the default next step — everything else here is a fresh setting. Plenty of novels like Lord of Mysteries nail one facet of it; the six picks below come with honest English-availability notes.
"Books similar to Lord of Mysteries" is really four different requests wearing one trench coat. Readers on r/LordofTheMysteries and r/ProgressionFantasy have asked what to read after Lord of Mysteries from 2020 through mid-2026, and they usually mean one of these:
How I picked: facet match over genre label, verifiable bibliographic facts, and a legal English reading path, or an honest note when there isn't one. Chapter counts and translation status are as of August 2026, checked against official Webnovel catalogs and Novel Updates on August 5, 2026. I reviewed Lord of Mysteries itself in a dedicated deep-dive; this list is about what comes next.
The official sequel is labeled "Sequel to Lord of Mysteries" on its Webnovel page and follows a new protagonist, Lumian Lee, a few years after the first book's finale in the same world, where the Tarot Club is still active. The official English translation by CKtalon is complete at 1,181 chapters (as of August 2026). A full review of the sequel is coming.
Read it if: you want more of the LotM universe, full stop.
Skip it if: you're craving a fresh setting; every other entry here builds a new world from scratch.
Same author, earlier masterpiece. Cuttlefish That Loves Diving sends a music student into a Renaissance-flavored world where magic runs on "arcana theory": knowledge is literally power, and climbing the ranks means publishing ideas that rewrite what magic can do. It's the clearest ancestor of the Sequence system's design philosophy: advancement as accumulated understanding. The official Webnovel translation is complete at 910 chapters (Henyee Translations). What's missing: no cosmic horror, and the world is Renaissance academy rather than steampunk Victorian. Our best xuanhuan novels list covered it from the "xuanhuan goes West" angle; here it's the system-facet pick.
Read it if: the Sequences were your favorite part and you love protagonists who study their way up.
Skip it if: Lovecraftian dread is non-negotiable.
Cuttlefish again, different register: post-apocalyptic science fiction. Shang Jianyao, a man with a genuinely unusual mind, leaves Pangu Biology's underground facility to explore the Ashlands, chasing a "New World" myth that unfolds as a slow-burn truth hunt. The pleasure is the Tarot Club one: a hidden architecture of the world, revealed in layers. The official translation is complete at 953 chapters on Webnovel (translator CKtalon), and Novel Updates lists it as Licensed and Completely Translated. The trade-off: wasteland sci-fi — no fog, no carriages, no séances.
Read it if: you trust Cuttlefish's plotting density and want the sci-fi variant of his layered reveals.
Skip it if: the Victorian atmosphere was the whole point.
Yuan Tong's industrial-fantasy epic is the atmosphere pick: a transmigrated knight named Gawain, a Church of the Dawn, and a long campaign of technological enlightenment dragging a medieval world toward its industrial age. The vibe is "what if the Victorian era had to be built on purpose" — industry as plot wrapped around a long-arc mystery. The original is complete at 1,597 chapters on Qidian; the official English translation is in progress at roughly 1,080 chapters, updating about 21 chapters a week (checked August 2026). Title trap: Novel Updates lists it as Sword of Daybreaker, and The Sword of Dawn (Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon novel) is a different book by a different author.
Read it if: Victorian-industrial atmosphere plus civilization-building sounds like home.
Skip it if: starting an unfinished translation is a dealbreaker.
Yuan Tong again, and the closest entry here to Lord of Mysteries' "knowledge is dangerous" register. Captain Duncan sails the ghost ship Lost Home through fog-choked seas where the rules of reality are negotiable and the things in the deep are not. It delivers the same dread — investigation as survival, truth as a hazard — without borrowing the setting. The original is complete at 851 chapters. One catalog wrinkle: Webnovel's English version runs as Embers of the Deep, marked Completed at 856 catalog entries (the original runs 851), while Novel Updates' Deep Sea Embers entry still lists a fan translation with "Licensed: No" — checked August 2026. What's missing: the power system is thinner than the Sequences.
Read it if: cosmic-horror atmosphere is your core fix.
Skip it if: you came primarily for potion-pathway progression.
I Can Fix Air-Conditioners writes the horror-comedy angle: a protagonist running a haunted-house attraction gets system missions that reward him for scaring visitors, and each scenario drags him deeper into real supernatural cases. Under the humor it's a case-by-case mystery engine with genuine scares, which is why LotM readers keep recommending it. The original is complete at 1,211 chapters across 16 volumes; the official English translation is complete on Webnovel, and Novel Updates lists it as Licensed and Completely Translated. Our best Chinese system novels list covered it from the "system as mechanism" angle; here the horror-mystery facet is the point. Where it falls short: no Sequence-style ladder, no Victorian setting.
Read it if: atmospheric horror with a mystery spine sounds right.
Skip it if: ghosts are a hard no, or you need a formal progression system.
Two non-Chinese titles dominate every "novels like Lord of Mysteries" thread; they're bonus comparisons, not part of the six-pick list.
Mother of Learning (Domagoj Kurmaic): a completed web serial about a smart protagonist trapped in a time loop, with rules the author actually plays by. The 2020 r/noveltranslations thread quoted u/Heapifying: "put it at the same level as LoTM" — the smart-MC, no-deus-ex-machina facet. We used it as the Western anchor in our xianxia vs. progression fantasy comparison. Not Victorian, not occult.
Worm (Wildbow): a completed web serial, officially free to read online, with systematic superpowers, dark worldbuilding, and a protagonist who solves problems sideways. Modern setting, zero Victorian occult — but the "clever lead plus coherent power logic" overlap is real.
The translation picture in one table, all as of August 2026:
| Novel | Author | Original | English status | Where |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lord of Mysteries | Cuttlefish That Loves Diving | Complete, 1,432 chapters | Complete official translation | Webnovel |
| Circle of Inevitability | Cuttlefish That Loves Diving | Complete sequel | Complete official translation, 1,181 chapters | Webnovel |
| Throne of Magical Arcana | Cuttlefish That Loves Diving | Complete, 910 chapters | Complete official translation | Webnovel |
| Embers Ad Infinitum | Cuttlefish That Loves Diving | Complete, 953 chapters | Complete official translation | Webnovel |
| Sword of Dawnbreaker | Yuan Tong | Complete, 1,597 chapters | Official translation in progress, ~1,080 chapters | Webnovel |
| Deep Sea Embers | Yuan Tong | Complete, 851 chapters | Official version Embers of the Deep complete, 856 catalog entries (the original runs 851) | Webnovel |
| My House of Horrors | I Can Fix Air-Conditioners | Complete, 1,211 chapters | Complete official translation | Webnovel |
Four of the six Chinese picks can be finished in English today: Deep Sea Embers has a completed English edition on Webnovel, but its license status is contested (Novel Updates still lists the fan translation with "Licensed: No"), so I'm not counting it as a stable legal read. Lord of Mysteries itself has three legal tracks: the complete digital translation on Webnovel, the Yen Press print edition (Vols. 1–3 out, Vol. 4 due September 2026), and the donghua on Crunchyroll (Season 1, English dub, and the June 2026 specials).
For gap cases like Sword of Dawnbreaker's unfinished translation and honorable mentions with no English coverage, the paths are the Qidian originals (our Qidian-to-English reading guide walks that route) or AI translation. Occult fiction is where translation quality matters most: pathway names, Sequence titles, and ritual terminology must stay locked across chapters, and Theo's genre-by-genre accuracy guide explains why that's the hard part. Translation runs 25–35 credits per chapter, so 1,000 free monthly credits cover roughly 30–40 chapters — enough to sample a gap title's opening stretch and judge whether the translation works for you.
For the LotM finisher with a book-shaped hole in their week, the donghua viewer arriving from the 2025 anime or the June 2026 specials, the Sanderson reader wanting another rules-driven system, the Lovecraft reader wanting dread with a plot. Quick triage: more of the same universe → Circle of Inevitability; the system → Throne of Magical Arcana; layered mystery → Embers Ad Infinitum; steampunk atmosphere → Sword of Dawnbreaker; cosmic dread → Deep Sea Embers; horror with laughs → My House of Horrors. My first attempt at a "similar" pick after the finale was a miss: a heavily recommended epic that shared nothing with the experience but a clever protagonist. I wised up, went for the sequel, then Deep Sea Embers for the fog withdrawal, and I regret neither. Pick by facet, and you'll skip that miss.
Circle of Inevitability is the default next step — the official sequel, same universe, new protagonist, fully translated. If you'd rather change worlds, pick by facet.
At list level: yes, if you want more of the LotM universe. It's the same author's direct continuation, fully translated on Webnovel at 1,181 chapters as of August 2026. A dedicated review is coming; treat it as the sequel, not a standalone entry point.
Yes — four of the six Chinese picks have complete official English translations on Webnovel (Circle of Inevitability, Throne of Magical Arcana, Embers Ad Infinitum, My House of Horrors). Deep Sea Embers has a completed edition, but its license status is contested, so it's not a stable legal read. The two Western comparisons are English originals.
No — as of August 2026 the official Webnovel translation stands at roughly 1,080 of 1,597 chapters. Note that Novel Updates lists the same book as Sword of Daybreaker; The Sword of Dawn (Michael Moorcock's Hawkmoon novel) is a different book by a different author.
Lord of Mysteries is on Webnovel digitally, in print from Yen Press (three volumes out as of August 2026), and streaming as a donghua on Crunchyroll. Every Chinese entry here has an official Webnovel edition; the Chinese originals are on Qidian, and unlicensed gap titles can be read via the original plus AI translation.
Start Reading with 1,000 Free Credits
No credit card. 1,000 credits refresh every month — roughly 25–40 chapters. Install the extension and translate any Chinese novel.