"This boy was cautious indeed. Even with terms so generous and favorable, he had not let down his guard."
Several months later, the black-robed cultivator returned to the Human Ancestor Hall secret realm. Seeing that Wei Tu had yet to activate the talisman message, he came calling, unable to keep a trace of frustration from rising in his heart.
"Fortunately, seventh-rank and quasi-seventh-rank escape artifacts are hard to come by. Even if someone is willing to trade one, they will ask a high price, just as I did. It is not something he can easily afford."
"...Sooner or later, this boy will come to his senses and lower his guard!"
The black-robed cultivator narrowed his eyes and decided to continue waiting patiently, measuring the time in decades—or even centuries.
Just as the black-robed cultivator had expected.
Over the dozen-odd years after Wei Tu reposted his trade request, only a scant few people came to discuss trading their seventh-rank or quasi-seventh-rank escape artifacts with him.
Yet without exception, every asking price was exorbitant, beyond what Wei Tu, a "minor Void Refinement cultivator," could afford.
It was not that the cultivators who came to trade were opening their mouths like lions. Rather, those spirit treasures... were normally priced that way.
Or rather, Wei Tu's earlier purchase of the [Shrinking Step Talisman] talisman artifact at the Myriad Spirits Immortal City trade fair had been a small stroke of fortune.
—Within the human race, there were quite a few Body Integration Cultivators, but few could refine life-saving talisman artifacts like the [Shrinking Step Talisman].
Though talisman artifacts possessed some traits of magical artifacts, at their root they were still "spirit talismans." Naturally, they cost far less than escape spirit treasures of the same rank—more than merely half or a third of the price.