Noah fell silent when he heard that revelation, but the thoughts inside his mind were churning violently.
Elder Julia's metaphor could be interpreted in many ways or, rather, it could express the many available approaches to a cultivator's training.
'You can surely fill the cup without getting dirty, but you would only be able to drink less wine in that way. A steady growth without sacrifices.'
That was the normal method, what the majority of the cultivators did.
'You can drink directly from the jar, but the entirety of your body would be tainted, and most of the wine would fall on the floor. A reckless method, suitable only for helpless situations.'
Elder Julia remained silent, she didn't want to interrupt Noah.
'You can ask for someone's help to fill your cup or use a smaller container, but the flavor of the wine would be affected due to those steps. After all, the best container is the jar, which represents the world. That is the approach of the nobles.'
Then, he understood what method he was using.
'I would just get my robe's dirty and waste part of the wine only to drink it sooner. In that way, something always escapes my grasp even though I'm making great sacrifices.'
Noah's eyes began to shine when he thought that, and Elder Julia understood that it was her moment to speak again.
"Prince, in my long life, I've never seen someone like you. You are extremely driven and incredibly hardworking, I don't think I've ever seen you taking a break."
Elder Julia heaved a sigh after she spoke those words before continuing to give him pointers.
"Heroic cultivators have fewer physical limits, but that doesn't imply that they don't need to rest. You keep on sacrificing yourself to walk on the faster road, but you risk to waste most of the wine in the jar only to drink less than half of it."
"But, the jar is bottomless."
Noah said when he heard those words.
No matter how much he drank, the wine wouldn't be depleted.
The world would always have more laws for him to absorb, the metaphor wasn't a perfect representation of reality.
"Yes, but you have limits, every cultivator has. Also, you risk being too drunk to fully taste the wine if you keep on drinking it at that speed. There is nothing wrong with choosing a path filled with stains, but it is pointless if you can't enjoy the wine when you drink it. You must learn to enjoy every sip, Prince."
Noah felt that he understood what she meant.
Elder Julia had taken the fastest approach without getting her robe dirty, all she needed to do was to wait for the cup to dry up.
'Does she mean that my mind must become used to the changes before refilling it?'
He only thought that question since Elder Julia began to speak again.
"Prince, you forget yourself when you focus too much on the world, and you ignore the world when you focus only on yourself. In your case, you lose the beauty of the details when you focus only on the bigger picture."
'The beauty of the details.'
Noah repeated those words in his mind.
Elder Julia was right, he had been able to accept the positive effects that he had on the people around him only recently after all.
"As cultivators, our lives are very long, commoners would even call us in the heroic ranks immortals! However, we are living beings too, and no living being can keep doing something that it doesn't enjoy for centuries. Tell me, Prince, do you like cultivating?"
That question surprised Noah.
He had never lingered too much on that aspect of his training.
He would cultivate because nothing really mattered if he didn't have power.
His choice had always been between a worthless life and one that could mean something.
Noah answered after a long moment of silence.
"I think I like it. Not strictly training, but the power that results from it."
He loved the feeling of his centers of power growing stronger with each passing day.
He loved the freedom that his power brought.
Also, after becoming a hybrid, he had begun to enjoy fighting more.
He had begun to love when his training gave him the power to overwhelm his opponents.
"Enjoy that feeling, Prince. Cultivating is a journey, not a sacrifice. Learn to appreciate what you have achieved before turning your gaze toward what you want. Once you've done it, you'll be truly able to use your current power to affect the world."
Elder Julia concluded her speech with those words, and she showed a smile before leaving the hall.
Noah left his cup on the mat and closed his eyes to think.
The Divine deduction technique activated again, and the creation of a will resumed.
Yet, there seemed to be some slight modifications from before.
A smile appeared on Noah's face as a feeling enveloped his body and filled him with a dense ecstasy.
He was bathing himself in the emotions that he had felt when he won his first battle as a hybrid, when he fought against Heaven for the first time.
He remembered the joy that he felt in that act of defiance when a transmigrator and a cursed species had finally managed to claim their first victory against such an oppressive ruler.
'I don't care about rules, but I like breaking theirs. Heaven and Earth might suppress my creations, but they would only hear me laugh when I forge a different path.'
Noah felt as if he had found something that he lacked since the beginning of his second life.
'I'm not a machine, I am a hybrid! I've already forged my rightful place in this world when I defeated the Tribulations, I've already proven that Heaven and Earth can't suppress me!'
Mental energy gathered under the surface of the sea inside Noah's mind as the light of the inscriptions on its walls illuminated the ethereal area.
A will quickly formed and rose from the sea only to appear next to Noah's half-transparent figure.
The will had Noah's shape, but its body was made of black flames.
Also, an arrogant smirk was on its face as it floated outside of the mental sphere to land on Noah's hand.
Noah injected his "Breath" inside the will and the flames that made its body flickered before disappearing from his palm.
The black flames reappeared on the couch in front of him, and they soon took the same shape as before, even if some of them had been depleted.
The will though continued to smirk and directed its gaze to the sky, it was as if it was challenging the world to stop it.
Noah stood up at that point and reinserted the will inside his mind.
The translation was completed, he had finally made the Warp spell his.
However, he didn't immediately leave.
He stood there with his cold reptilian eyes fixed on the ceiling of the hall.
Then, a thought hit his calm mind.
'I understand this feeling now. Defying Heaven and Earth is fun!'