Albeit his thoughts could not be considered calm and collected, Wu Guang did not lose his concentration at any moment. Still, this last received attack slightly angered him. He was not angered at anything else than himself. How could he forget his own decision of being more careful?

In any case, there were no what-ifs. He could either win or be battered to death by them.

Wu Guang cleared his mind of every distracting thought and concentrated his entire mind on the task at hand. There were four golems left, from which the only two were fully undamaged. Ignoring the 3rd quality one, the issue was the strongest one.

"I have to stop his movements and cripple him enough so it does not present any danger"

One sound strategy would be to use the slabs from the 'Earth Rock Shield', but Wu Guang had already tested and found out that he could not rise or control the 'Barrier Granite' covering the floor. As for the earth and rock below, it could not break through such a material. Wu Guang had no other techniques that could be used for restraining, but he had something on himself, or better said inside, that could both damage and stop the golem. Calling a small amount of the 'Primal Magma' he had stored inside his void space did not require much effort, and now that it had been washed by his qi for some time, it did not provoke any pain in him during the process. And by covering his hand with the 'Ghostflame' that was on an equal level of strength, Wu Guang could hold it without feeling anything.

Magma took a long time to cool and solidify, but with its amount being only about a single pound, it only took a few moments to solidify half an inch of its exterior. While Wu Guang concentrated on the task, he used his movement technique to zig-zag around the golems to avoid any attacks. The constant flow of air was also an element that allowed him to quicken the process and give a try to his plan.

*Whoosh*

As soon as a thin crust had covered the magma, Wu Guang launched it at the golem's right leg.

Having no sentience made the golem continue acting on his only order, attack the challenger and so it did not avoid the projectile, letting the fairly small 'pebble' hit his leg. The outer crust instantly was broken, releasing the contained magma.

*Shhhhss*

Primal magma was extremely hot, and even after being cooled a bit it still was far hotter than a normal flame, so it did start melting the 'Barrier Granite' armor. Granted, it could not fully melt it, but this was enough for the granite to start cracking. The golem movement shook the magma off, but Wu Guang had confirmed the feasibility of his plan.

Continuing his running, Wu Guang prepared another similar projectile and after carefully aiming sent it towards the same place.

Wu Guang had to repeat the process six times until the shin armor was destroyed, and revealed the far softer stone inside.

The golem had speed comparable to his own and so it was impossible to sneak on him, but now Wu Guang had no need. With an unguarded part located in a place where it should not be, the Golem would ignore Wu Guang's attack and continue his own, something that Wu Guang already found out while fighting the weaker ones.

"Now!" With a loud shout, he stopped running and turned to meet the approaching seven feet armored stone colossus.

Crouching as to avoid the punch from the golem, Wu Guang quickly punched at the now unguarded shin.

'Corporeal Spirit Stone' was indeed a hard material, but if Wu Guang used his full strength, he could break a slab a foot or so thick. The now unarmored shin was a bit thinner, and so it broke in half without issue.

*Swoosh*

With his maximum speed, Wu Guang escaped right after the punch connected and the result was confirmed. There was a reason for such a quick escape.

*BAMMM*

Losing half of his right leg, which was the leading one in the golems posture made it fall. And it fell towards the front. Being latter even for a single moment in his escape, Wu Guang would have been squashed.

With the strongest golem mostly immobilized, at least to a point where Wu Guang could avoid being attacked by it simply staying a few feet from the laying construct, there was no more trouble. Dealing with the undamaged middle-quality golem was a bit tricky, but Wu Guang concentrated all of his senses on his target and in one-on-one combat managed to down it. Having already gotten used to their actions, he did not receive a single hit, while pulverizing most of the golem's extremities.

________________________________________________________________________

Three and half hours after entering the room, Wu Guang returned outside. His robe was in tatters, but by dissolving another drop of pure Wood Essence he had healed most of his wounds.

The key was in his hand, but the actual gain was a change in his mindset. Wu Guang had previously believed that he should be more careful, but now he had decided that he was wrong with such a half-assed way.

"I am neither the lofty scholar Bai Qi nor a Sky-realm cultivator. Albeit I have a lot of advantages over the locals and with enough preparation can contend even against the strongest, it does not changes that physically I am just a bit stronger than most peak Spirit realm cultivators. If even a room of 'Barrier Granite' managed to throw me into dire straits when fighting a group of constructs, then what would have happened if there was a real Soul realm cultivator inside? I would have died. I can not depend on my previous life advantages for everything, especially as it will only grow smaller and smaller as time goes"

As Wu Guang arrived at the room with the sealed Spiritual Being, he had arrived at a decision. It was simple, he would need to train until he sweated blood to become what he was before, a genius that reached the peak of strength. His current body was far worse and even with the enormous advantages, he had only slightly improved it. Yes, he was stronger than anyone his age around here, but what of it? He would be in the lowest rankings of a middle-tier plane, and would not even be considered a cultivator on a high-tier one. He would remember the arduous training he did as Bai Qi, and train even more. After all, if he could not match the geniuses from higher tier planes after arriving there, how could he even think of approaching the Divine realm?

________________________________________________________________________

The spiritual being was silent, seemingly deep in thought. It did not react to Wu Guang's appearance, and only did when he deactivated the rune plate. Seeing the condition of his robes, it even attempted to show a bit of care by asking if he was wounded.

"I have already healed. No problem. Let's see what's the next challenge is about" Wu Guang answered while approaching the 8th rune plate. He was far more careful than before, reading and comprehending every character to confirm that there were no hidden meanings. Thankfully there were not, and even better, the challenge was comprised of a single question. He had a single chance, but if he failed, there would be no penalties. Well, except that he could not deactivate the rune plate and so the Spiritual being would need to wait for another person to come.

The question that had appeared looked pretty simple, but its meaning was extremely deep.

"What does a human cultivator always have?"

The first things that would come to anyone would be qi or cultivation, but both of them are not something permanent. After all, a cultivator can spend all his qi, or lose his cultivation. Both could also be sealed.

Plus the question explicitly said 'human', so neither of the two applied either.

Mind, sentience, conscience, mindpower, soul power, soul, etc. All of these options could be discarded for the same reasons.

Wu Guang did not think of any of these options. He did not think at all. Right after reading the question and confirming that there was no hidden meaning, he wrote the answer on the rune plate by infusing qi into his fingertip. "The Seven Emotions and Six Desires". Yes, that was right, all cultivators would always have the same emotions and desires as mortal humans had. Even if they reached the peak or lost their cultivation, they would retain these. Other races also had them, but there were far fewer cases of madness or inner demons caused by them... so it could be said that only humans depended so much on emotions and desires.

"..."

As if thinking about the received answer, albeit impossible, the rune plate stood unchanged for a pair of minutes. Only after this time passed it shone brightly before deactivating entirely.

"Mmm" Wu Guang nodded in acknowledgment and moved towards the 9th, last, rune plate.

This one turned out to be an intelligence test. The explanation was short, only having a few characters 'Chess' 'Win' 'Same' 'Moves'. As Wu Guang wondered what they meant, the challenge activated by itself. A chess table was projected by a rune-set on the plate, and as soon as Wu Guang turned his attention to it, a match started.

The red-colored, south, side moved first. Considering the placement of the projection, seemingly it was Wu Guang's side. The match was tensed and the mastery of the sides looked equal, but about half-game on the red side started failing to capitalize on openings. It looked like it was deliberately losing.

And it not only looked like it, but it was so. It took only six moves for the black side to check the red's king and after a failed attempt at escaping, the king was captured. Afterward, the pieces returned to their initial position and the projection descended a bit, to allow Wu Guang to control the red side.

Wu Guang had absolute confidence in his chess skills and would have won the match using any of the sides. Still, the words about using the same movements lingered in his mind. What did they mean? If one used the same ones, how could one win?

"Hmm, I missed something" As to not lose by time-out Wu Guang repeated the opening movement, after all, there was no other option but to start the game anyway.

"Wait... same movements don't mean same order!" This thought appeared in Wu Guang's mind almost instinctively as he was about to repeat the second movement he saw before.

Indeed, if he was allowed to use all of the same movements but reorder them at will, there should be a winning strategy there. Wu Guang used the maximum allowed time while repeating the initial movements while carefully organizing the remaining movements in his mind. At the 6th movement, he decided to test his idea and used not the 6th, but the 19th movement he saw.

It turned that he was right, the match continued with no issue. What's more, the black side did not react at all!

"It can not be so easy, right?" Wu Guang continued with another of the allowed movements.

This time the black side did react, albeit it used a movement that was also part of the previous match.

"I see, so both sides can only use the same movements and the one to apply them better will win"

________________________________________________________________________

As Wu Guang was playing chess, a figure approached the place he had fought the golems before. With a few seals, the figure opened the hidden hatch and entered the challenge room.

Inside, the signs of battle were observable. Golem pieces are thrown around, scraps of Wu Guang's robes, small dents on the 'Barrier Granite'. Albeit there should be also some blood, Wu Guang made sure to clear it up. Having decided to be cautious, he decided to don't allow his blood to end in the hands of no one except him. After all, blood could be used for curse, tracking, or even poisonous techniques.

The figure that had entered clapped once and the lights went on. If Wu Guang was here, he would be surprised to recognize the figure as Old Rui! The seemingly mortal old man from Boundary Hill City that helped during the investigation.

Old Rui approached the rune plate and infused qi into it. After that, he took a look around and sucked a breath of air before murmuring with a surprised tone

"He managed to beat a challenge meant for cultivators at the 2nd level of the Soul realm while being only a Peak Spirit Realm one. And even to damage the golems to such an extent... This is not a simple genius, this a genuine demon"