The first thing Theron tried to do was replicate the technique. For all he knew, maybe the replacement Water Meridians he had worked exactly the same as the Dark Mana pathways he had lost. So, if he just circulated the technique "normally," it would trigger much the same.
Theron knew this was a bit of a foolish idea. No, not a bit—it was very foolish.
Randomly circulating your Mana with the intent to trigger a Spell was one of the first things they taught you NOT to do in the academy.
Randomly circulating your Mana was fine. But if you did so with intent to complete the final steps of Spell casting, then you could easily go into Cultivation Deviation.
Undirected or imprecise deployment of Mana could lead to ill effects that could cause backlash as bad as death.
But Theron chose to do so anyway.
