Liu Yao

Picture the most dysfunctional group of disciples you can imagine—a narcissist, a troublemaker, a straight-up mean kid, an idiot, and a coward—and now tell them they're responsible for saving their entire sect from extinction. That's Liu Yao. Cheng Qian is a young boy taken in by the Fuyao Sect, which sounds impressive until you realize the sect is basically on life support. Its reputation is in shambles, resources are thin, and the handful of disciples left aren't exactly prodigies. Under the questionable leadership of senior disciple Yan Zhengming (the narcissist), this ragtag group has to figure out cultivation, survive each other's personalities, and somehow restore Fuyao to what it once was. The early episodes are all about these kids clashing and slowly, reluctantly becoming something like a family. There's real comedy in how terrible they are at getting along, but the emotional undercurrent is what sticks with you—these are lonely, flawed people finding purpose in each other. Based on a beloved novel and animated by GARDEN Culture, this ONA leans into character dynamics over flashy power-ups, at least early on. If you enjoyed the sect politics and slow-burn relationships in Love and Redemption, or the character-driven storytelling of Legend of Yunxi, this hits a similar chord. It's a cultivation story where the real challenge isn't mastering techniques—it's growing up together.