Cosmic Shepherd

Ji Xun is a data analyst living an unremarkable life in the central Orion region. Three years ago, his father Ji Yuanshan—a low-ranking F-rated star shepherd—died alone in his designated grazing sector, his ashes scattered into the stellar wind. Ji Xun has almost no memory of his father, who left when he was twelve and remained absent for the next sixteen years. The only inheritance left behind was a desolate territory marked as a "Dead Star Zone" and a debt precisely matching the estate's total value. To settle this debt, Ji Xun is forced to travel to the K-7749 stellar region his father once guarded. His plan is simple: take a look, sign the waiver of inheritance, and return to his ordinary life. However, deep within that star system, inside a gray-white planetary core officially archived as "dead," his ship's resonance detector picks up a faint, ancient heartbeat. The planet is not dead; it is an ancient civilization on the verge of awakening. His father, Ji Yuanshan, spent sixteen long years single-handedly guarding a secret powerful enough to upend the existing order of the universe.