My Substitute CEO Bride (Nash Calicraft) novel Chapter 1462

“Exercise? Did I gain weight?” Tatiana panicked, checking her arms and then pulling out her phone to look at her face. Having indulged in delicious and spicy foods recently without much exercise, she wondered if she had gained weight.

Nash smiled and added, "Not that kind of exercise.”

Only then did Tatiana realize what he meant. Blushing, she retorted, “Who’d want to exercise with you?" Despite saying that, her body betrayed her. Just thinking about that night made her mouth salivate uncontrollably.

After eating her fill, Tatiana got up to clean the dishes. Next to the stone house was a sink. A cartoon water bottle was hung upside down from the eaves. When she opened the cap, clear water came pouring out.

Tatiana washed the dishes absentmindedly when she caught sight of the 'wolf' staring at her legs in the corner of her eye. Had things gone too far? As she was washing the last dish, the 'wolf' had already approached and embraced her from behind.

His low, magnetic voice sounded in her ear. "Time for some exercise." With Nash’s warm breath on her face, she melted instantly into his arms. Nash carried Tatiana into the stone house. This time, Tatiana did not resist.

Nash had been studying hard for the past three days. It was time he got his reward.

Three hours passed swiftly. Nash covered the blushing Tatiana with a silk quilt, then returned to his study of array patterns by the window until the next morning. By that time, he had reached the 45th page.

On the windowsill sat eight stones now bearing carved array patterns. With the others done from previous days, there was now a total of 24 stones. Nash took these stones deep into the bamboo forest to test the array's effectiveness.

Of the 24 array patterns, the Thunder and Fire Patterns were etched on eight each while three bore the Wind Pattern. Another three were etched with the Detect Pattern, and finally, two with the Earth Pattern. Combined, they formed an integrated defense and offense array.

Following the instructions from the tome, Nash arranged the stones according to the 12 Heavenly Stems and 12 Earthly Branches. As he placed the last stone, visible ripples appeared in the air.