Wow, I haven't checked this in two months, got a lot to answer to.
Flaffy True Star is...not for ones who enjoy plot over the "romance" (if you can call it that) in the beginning chapters, and I was kind of disappointed by the ending. If I may suggest, if you'd rather not have wuxia or xianxia, to read: The Unicorn League (fantasy, shounen ai, pretty nice plot, it's nice for some fluff and adventure with a tinge of tragic backstories); 'Quickly Hide the Face of the Devil' (multiple different arcs, while some arcs are wuxia or xianxia, there's multiple other types of arcs in it, and the plots change with every arc, but with like two main plots involved (one of them being the shou and gong falling in love obv.); 'Spring Trees and Sunset Clouds' (from what I've read so far it's really fluffy and slow paced(slow burn), so you would have to be in for the long haul, depressing back story but the gong and shou are hecka cute with each other). Also, I heard you don't really want xianxia or wuxia BL novels, but there's some really good ones out there so I hope you're willing to give it a try. Some of them do indeed have it where the shou is pretty useless, but others have them where while the shou's aren't stronger than the gong, they can hold their own pretty well. And I would really like to promote 'Founder of Diabolism' as a great first timer wuxia BL novel, mostly because there's some humor, a relatively strong shou who while weaker than the gong it's probably only because his soul is in a new body, and a really nice complicated plot. On the plus side, there's also no creepy rape or sex in general so far that I've read (though that's only about 34 chps out of 117 + 7 extras), so I think you might like it? Also 'Heaven Official's Blessing', which is a newish novel written by the same author as 'Founder of Diabolism' so while I haven't read much it's been great so far, so I have high hopes( and pretty humorous so far too). All of the ones I've suggested above have kind of an equilibrium between plot or daily life in general and the BL romance and none of them have any hardcore sex scenes('Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil' is probably the only exception, but they aren't super explicit either) as far as I am aware of (though it might change in future chapters). I hope you try one of them out!
Shams OMG I LOVE 'Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil', and I managed to find some other BL novels like 'Heroic Death System' and 'Cannon fodder Counterattack System' if you're interested!
yummyrambutans I thought it'd be a good novel, and then found it lacking, so I can agree with your statement. If someone wanted it to be more focused on acting and the "romance" equally (honestly it's almost like the go to thing for the gong of the BL book to at least attempt to rape the shou at least once before they actually fall in love) I would recommend 'Kill the Lights'(it's Korean, but still), though just as a warning, the sex scenes are (ahem) pretty explicit.
Dorothea2000 I haven't found much xianxia BL, but I know that 'Quickly Wear the Face of the Devil' has a xianxia arc (though the whole novel in general is amazing); 'You Know Too Much' is a freaking cute one shot; 'The Legendary Master's Wife' (someone mentioned it above and I checked it out it's pretty cool so far, though I wish that the gong would stop acting like a dog in heat when it comes to the shou); 'Heaven Official's Blessing' (haven't read a lot yet, but looks good so far, really funny); 'Feng Yu Jiu Tian' (not a xianxia, more historical fiction mixed with BL, but the series had 28 novels last time I checked, but you might like it, and while the beginning is pretty rough, I swear it gets better later on( though I haven't been past book 3 yet, so take everything I say with a grain of salt). I hope you enjoy!
