Aster focused his attention in the place where he created the first fraction of the cycle, which Esmeralda taught him, the whole body of a cultivator had meridians, since spirit energy had to flow through every place.
They aren't like veins whose number is always the same in the body, but their number varies from person to person, not to mention new ones can be created, depending on the manual used to cultivate or other factors.
For example, Aster's movement technique, Lightning Step, made him create meridians in his legs which other people don't have, he also had to learn the way to make spirit energy flow into them to activate the technique, that's what manuals were used for mainly.
Also it's like one can simply just learn techniques to create more and more meridians, thinking it would increase one's capacity to circulate spirit energy, there is a limit as to how much one's body can endure.
The bigger advantage the body path has over the energy path, is that the number of meridians they can use is many times bigger than others.
That being said, not all the meridians are active by innate, part of the "talent" aspect evaluated by the sect is the amount of meridians the candidates use or have the moment they do the test.
That's something Lilia told Aster only after the trials, the sect includes the efforts put in by the aspirants in the "talent" level, and the one who asked that to be taken into consideration was none other than Lilia.
The reason as to why Aster's talent result was unmeasurable for the treasure used in the sect, is in part because the number of meridians he has, outnumber those of a Genesis Manifestation cultivator, while still being below the Mortal Transcending realm, which of course has no precedents, the treasure simply had nothing to compare him to.
Anyway, returning to the place where Aster decided to place the first part of the cycle, he took inspiration on his own body, when he used the golden armor, there is an specific set of meridians on his back, chest and arms which basically connect everything.
"If I understood Esmeralda's idea correctly, while the places where your poison would circulate through will be restrained, the output and overall power of your techniques should increase, so the first place should always be the chest".
Vivian nodded, she who uses her soul energy in replace of physical strength to combat, knows the basics of close combat, the chest is always the main target of an enemy, it's easier to hit than the head, and harder to defend due to its proximity to the arms.
Before retrieving his hand, Aster's attention was dragged towards her heart, with spirit sense he could look at the "layers" of the body, he just changed from the energy layer to the flesh one, normally when women are treated the medic or alchemist must be a woman too, since it's easy to spy at the naked body of someone when you are in direct contact with it.
If done from a distance, the target can easily notice it and resist, but in close contact, is harder to resist though easy to notice, even so Vivian trusted that Aster wasn't going to do such a thing.
Surprisingly her constitution which originated in her heart, allowed him to take a peek, probably because the cycle was formed around it.
Seeing that Vivian was okay with it, Aster looked at her heart, which unlike other people's, it was white colored, also there were multiple gem-like tones shining on it, probably following the known fact that something with multiple bright colors has a high chance of being highly poisonous.
But for Aster who wasn't attacked by it, it just looked like a pretty piece of art, lineages and constitutions have an origin in the body, which is different depending on each one, in his case his blood has those golden strings mixed into it, for Lilia and Alice their blood is of a bright red, like a pretty ruby gem.
So far the one Aster found the most captivating was Aria's origin, in her case it were her bones, unlike their normal color, they seemed to be made of a pretty light blue jade, the same platinum blue tone of her hair, but he had to admit that Vivian's heart was pretty too.
That heart is also the reason as to why her skin, hair and eyes are so pale, Aster retrieved his hand and left Vivian inspect herself.
"Try to circulate your spirit energy through the cycle and produce a poison just for testing, I remember you telling me that your limit was three changes, before things got annoying again, see if one of those three changes is used now".
"Mm", Vivian nodded and then closed her eyes, it took more her more time than when she just leaves her body do the distribution, which is showed by the marks that appear on her body each time she uses her constitution.
That being said, the result was many times brighter than normal, so much that the glow could be seen from beneath her dress, the mark was a small yellow sun on her chest right above the place where the heart is positioned.
Her spirit energy exploded out of her body in the form of yellow waves which ended up melting the table and everything around them, with the exception of the chairs in which they were seating.
It was a yang type poison, which generated heat, from Aster's point of view she became a living microwave machine, it was a terrifying technique.
Vivian then opened her eyes and a bright smile flourished on her pretty face; she lowered the right side of her dress to show Aster the mark, she nearly uncovered her breast by doing so.
"Look, Look Aster, the mark is really small for this high ranked poison I'm using and it's easy to control!", she exclaimed, her expression made her look like a kid who got a new toy, she was eager to try it.
Aster nodded.
"Yeah, that's good, now cover up again, I don't know where to look, okay?".
Vivian giggled in response, she accommodated her dress and then asked.
"Why, are you going to do anything to me, Kana is looking you know?", she cutely asked, making Aster bitterly smile.
"I don't mind, but your uncle might declare a war against my valley if he ever finds out".
? Vivian softly laughed, her laugh was like little silver bells ringing, a pleasure to the ears, her face then blushed which was quite noticeable due to her pale skin tone.
"Sorry, Alice told me that I had to tease you at least once if I wanted to make the most out of our date", she shily said.
Aster was speechless.
'Sis… don't put weird ideas on such a pure girl's mind', thought Aster before saying.
"Ahem, I think you should spend more time with Aria instead", seeing Vivian's clueless expression, despite the fact that she was indeed conscious about the fact that what she did, isn't something trivial, made Aster remember he is her first friend.
Not even Julian was considered so close to her, especially after what happened with Joseph, and maybe because her body deemed him harmless, she was pretty defenseless towards him.
'Ugh, damn, I'm not that trustable, you know, I ended up "devouring" my first friend you know', thought Aster, referring to Aria.
Since this part was finished and after Vivian confirmed the cycle made by Aster wasn't disappearing, she made other tests and reached a conclusion.
First, though it didn't burn one of the three changes she could use in a certain period of time, she couldn't use the cycle more than once, even if she know had some control over her constitution, it wasn't to the point of fully dictating its actions.
After using the cycle, her body would "refuse" to follow that route and she had to convince it to, which took time, that was the first thing in which she had to put more focus, control.
Second, and this was probably what she wanted the most, if her poison became harder to control, it will be redirected to the cycle and sealed, since her constitution would never attack Aster, then it was the perfect countermeasure.
Of course, there was a limit, but with this, unless it was a critical situation, she would never lose her mobility or her sight ever again, also she will know if it was happening instead of it just being a surprise attack like always, it was like an amplified version of the way she forced her constitution to calm down by thinking on Aster.
Little gem-like tears appeared on Vivian's eyes, she was now one step closer to be able to have a normal daily life, after being afraid every day of just one day falling into the darkness, of her eyes becoming blind and her body being powerless, she now had a stable support, like a pillar who reached all the way to the sky for her.
"Are you happy sister Vivian, big brother is the best right~", said Kana as she sat on Vivian's lap.
Vivian smiled and then patted Kana's head, she knew her poison apparently didn't affect Kana, but she simply couldn't just convince herself that everything will be fine, the bad experiences she had, made it so that even if there was a slight possibility of she, unintentionally harming the others around her, then she would prefer to keep her distance.
Aster was different though, Kana wasn't targeted in normal cases, but Aster was immune to it, one was a bet while the other was certain, in any case now she could interact with others without having to worry about melting them away by accident.
"Yeah, he is~", said Vivian agreeing with Kana.
While those two chatted, Esmeralda's voice made its way to Aster's ears.
'It's good that it worked and all, but be aware that each fraction of cycle is harder to put than the previous one, also this is still just a band aid, though your estrange relationship with her, made it so it could work as a permanent thing', ultimately she needs to learn how to control her constitution".
'Once you have placed the fractions of the cycles in all her limbs and the one who will work as the center separately, we'll advance onto the next step which will be connecting them'.
Aster nodded.
'For now, leave her enjoy this step she just took', answered Aster as he saw Vivian happily chatting and hugging Kana.
For the rest of the morning, Aster looked at the future positions for the cycle in her body, until it was midday which meant it was time for him to go with the next girl, which in this case was Agnes.
After saying goodbye, Aster left the training room, because akin to her request, Agnes didn't even come close to the training room, and actually stayed the whole day inside her room, doing who knows what.
Kana saw Aster leaving and she turned to see Vivian, before saying.
"So how was it, did sister Vivian enjoyed her date with big brother?".
Vivian nodded without a second of doubt.
"Yeah, dates are as fun as the others mentioned, I'll be sure to ask Aster for more dates later~".
…
After walking a bit, Aster found himself in front of Agnes's room, he knocked on the door which opened a couple of seconds later to reveal, a fully dressed up Agnes.
It didn't escape Aster's eyes that her room was a mess, there wee countless attires on the bed and the floor.
'So that's what she has been doing the whole day', he thought.
For Agnes, apparently this was harder than clashing swords with the people from the Red Sword faction or the evil cultivators, she who practically wore different sets of the same attire all the time, was now changing.
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