Where do people read the actual novels for the stories/manhwa like I've seen people talk about the novels but I don't know where to read them??? ┗( T﹏T )┛
for the raw (chinese), many web novel writer usually put their work on jjwxc.
just like the user above me suggest, novelupdates are the go-to search engine when it comes to translated novels. you don't need to make account tho, just search for the novel name (do note that usually the novel and manhwa name is completely different.), the scroll to the bottom, there would be table for each website you can read each chapter from. they would redirect you to the translator's website such as cg, foxaholic, etc.
if you find a certain translation group works amazing, you can just choose random novels they are translating right on their website (it's more organized than the ones in novelupdates)
for the works that are already legally translated and can't be found in novelupdates, just go to zlib, or search the published novel's name with '.pdf' on google.
oh how I enjoy this mans suffering