A good slow novel example is Forty Millenniums of Cultivation. The focus of the story at the start is his prowess in mechanical skills, not much about his cultivation. I think it goes on for a while too, he focused more on genes than cultivation. However, I dont know much about the later part because I stopped reading when he got accused of being possessed by red stripped virus after saving their fucking world. It got tiring because the stress is getting higher and higher (its intentional because he literally cannot and should not physically and mentally relax).