You Are My Private Property

"Sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Bai Xiaowen said. "Do you still remember your past?"

A vicious glint flashed in the earless slave warrior's eyes. He suddenly drove a heavy punch into Bai Xiaowen's stomach.

A punch from someone so weak barely hurt, but Bai Xiaowen played along, doubling over as though in agony, curled up like a shrimp.

"This is your first lesson since arriving in Wogata Territory," the earless slave warrior snarled. "Know your place, lowly human!"

That punch alone told Bai Xiaowen something. Without a word, he followed the earless slave warrior to the snakefolk woman Sasha's residence.

Sasha lived atop a reef overlooking the mining district, where a row of enormous shell houses stood.

The earless slave warrior approached one of the houses and twisted a pattern on its shell. With a creak, the giant shell's upper half trembled and slowly lifted.

The shell house appeared to have around twenty square meters of floor space. Nearly ten meters long and several meters wide, it was the largest shell Bai Xiaowen had ever seen. Yet from the reef, he could make out even bigger shell villas in the distance, as tall as hills. That must have been the Wogata Tribe's "Noble District."

"Get in." The earless slave warrior gave Bai Xiaowen a rough shove.

Bai Xiaowen entered the shell house. "Don't try anything," the earless slave warrior warned. "Wait for the mistress to return. Abiwen will be watching you the whole time, lowly human!"

"Got it, got it." Bai Xiaowen smiled. He sat cross-legged on the floor and closed his eyes, motionless as if in meditation.

The slave warrior Abiwen kept his eyes fixed on Bai Xiaowen.

Bai Xiaowen was hardly idle. He directed the Shadow Assassin to roam cautiously while invisible, mapping the Wogata Tribe's