"Tools are precious?"
Though she had long prepared herself mentally, upon hearing that answer, Xu Xiao still found it deeply incomprehensible.
These tools for mining ore were nothing more than the simplest combination of common wood and the poorest-quality metal.
On the Data Panel, they did not even display a rank.
They did not even qualify as the most basic items!
And yet, they could still be called "precious"?
Could it be that these Palu's bodies and lives were not more "precious" than such crude tools?
"Yes." The little horseman did not notice the change in Xu Xiao's expression and continued, "If a tool breaks, it has to be repaired."
"If it can't be fixed, it has to be reported to the slave owner. They'll deduct a portion of your food rations for a period of time and replace it with a new one."
"Everyone's afraid of damaging the tools, so we generally avoid using them whenever possible."
"Anyway, the soil around earthwax ore isn't very hard. Digging with our hands doesn't lower efficiency."
Xu Xiao looked at the Palu slaves digging around them and saw that many of their hands were already wrapped in filthy strips of cloth, clearly bearing serious injuries.
One of them seemed to have split open an old wound while digging. Blood dripped from between his fingers now and then, forcing him to use a crude tool.
"You're injured like this—why are you still working?"
"Stop right now. Let me treat your wound, or it'll get infected!"
Xu Xiao quickly approached the Palu slave whose fingers were bleeding and directly reached out to stop him from swinging his pickaxe.
She immediately crouched down and carefully inspected the injury on his hand, cautiously peeling back the strips wrapped around his fingers.
Throughout the process, her face