The ant didn’t look special or reliable to them. So in order to demonstrate its capabilities, she said to the ant, "Hide for me."
The crystal ant obeyed her order and turned transparent. But this wasn’t enough to fool them because they could perceive it with their Insight Stat.
But then the ant changed color from white and took on the appearance of her brown chitinous hand. With this, it became very difficult to tell that there was an ant on her hand at all, even with their Insight Stat focused on her hand.
Loki had seen this before, so he wasn’t impressed with the display. In fact, he was bored.
But the other two were impressed with the display of the crystal ant. Nether Flame nodded while Money Body said, "This is not bad. It will do."
Loki couldn’t allow what had happened in the previous timeline to repeat itself, so he chose to speak up. He said, "I have another idea. Why don’t we just use the normal method?"
He wiggled the capsule in his hands and said, "This is not for show, you know. The sect gave them to us for a reason. I believe that we should trust the judgment of the sect rather than the expertise of some third-rate insect breeder."
His words made Monarch Ant Hill look at him in disbelief, as if he had just killed the crystal ant in the palm of her hand, as he said, "Third-rate insect breeder? How dare you?"
Nether Flame sensed that trouble was brewing because of what Loki said. In order to put out the trouble before it escalated, he said, "The method of using the homunculi to gain stealth access to a world only has a 50% chance of success. This ant, on the other hand, seems to be more capable. It should have a 90% of chance of success, so I think we should go with this option."
What Nether Flame said was reasonable, but he knew without a shred of doubt that the crystal ant would fail. So he said, "I think you’re jumping to that conclusion without any merit or due diligence. It is true that the homunculi only have a 50% chance of success. But at least, they have been tested and used many times."
"The homunculi method has been used many times before their reliability was confirmed to be 50-50. But this crystal ant has never been tried before. We don’t know anything about its success rate, so I believe that you’re jumping to an unfounded conclusion by saying it should have a 90% chance of success."
Nether Flame didn’t have a way to refute what he had said. After all, it was the fact that the crystal ant had never been tried before.
If he had his way, he would go with the option to use the crystal ant because it looked more reliable. But since he wasn’t the strongest here, the decision wasn’t up to him. So he shrugged after Loki spoke and decided to go along with whatever Money Body picked.
But Monarch Ant Hill wasn’t willing to give up like this. She wasn’t willing to leave the matter without saying her piece. After all, she had a lot to gain from being the one to open the way for them.
So she said, "I specifically bred this ant to evade the perception of divine beings. It was a project that took 28 years, over the breeding generation of nearly 450 generations of ants."
She pointed at the crystal ant as she said, "This ant cost me over 20,000 years’ worth of world essence. I’ve tested it by invading 3 small worlds with it. It succeeded each time, so it has a 100% rate of success."
"That’s how much I’ve prepared for it. Yet, you call me a third-rate breeder. How dare you belittle me and my effort like that?"
Her words had thoroughly convinced Nether Flame. Even Money Body was also convinced. This rank 8 money cultivator was sure that her crystal ant should have a better chance of success than the half-dead, half-living homunculi.
If he were to make a logical decision, Money Body would pick the crystal ant. However, Money Body had other concerns other than logic for making this decision.
Money Body wanted to bring this new Gold Body down, or at least force him to of the capabilities of his secret alliance. So he decided to give Loki a chance.
With this opportunity granted to him on a silver platter, he was inwardly happy. But outwardly, he put on a look of anger on his face as he said to Loki, "How about this? We will give your plan a chance. But if it fails, you will have to pay all of us for the amount of lifespan that it will cost us to breach the crystal shield by force."
Before Loki could reply, he said, "Let me make this clear, you will have to pay for the lifespan that we use up for every trip through the crystal shield from now on until a safe passage is secured through the crystal shield that doesn’t cost us lifespan to use."
He was saying that Loki would have to pay for their first trip through the crystal shield, as well as every trip they make through it, to set up the shield breaker.
Loki thought about the offer before saying calmly, "I have a better idea? We should use her plan."
"If her crystal ant succeeds, it will prove that you’re a better leader than I am. In that case, I am willing to do anything you want me to do on this mission."
"But if she fails, it will prove that I was right and a better decision maker than you. So for the rest of the mission, you and everyone else must do what I say."
Then he asked Money Body, saying, "What do you say?"
Money Body immediately smiled after he made his offer and said, "I say, why not?"