I'm pretty sure you'd have to look hard to find any such degree under that definition that doesnt include "leaving you to die from a hostile force that I could help you overcome were I to lend my assiatance" as part of said assistance
Again, that assumes a basic level of assistance having been agreed to. Which I'm disagreeing with.
Look, we both seem to agree that this is the part of the Shishigui statement that the Twelve Star Confederation is somewhat in agreement.
"The people of Y'lith'kai have common purpose with the people of the sky," the thing spoke, it's high pitched voice ill matched to the bass growls of the Cloud Tribe tongue. "As you are of the sky, we are of the depths. Never do our peoples need to be at cross purpose, unlike the plunderers, who contaminate, break and steal."
And this is the statement that the Twelve Star Confederation said
The cyan cultivator glowered at the pair before turning back to the others. "The Twelve Star confederation agrees to an extent. Your strike was foolish.It is too soon, even if you succeeded. Great Khan Galidan is still organizing his strength, and while the First is acclimated the Third and Seventh are not yet ready for war."
So the question then becomes, to what extent do the Twelve Star Confederation agree with the Shishigui? Given their comments, it can't be argued that they fully agree with the Shishigui.
Now the Shishigui statement has three parts.
- Shishigui have common purpose with the Cloud Nomads
- Shishigui and Sky Nomads do not need to be at cross purposes
- The Empire are at cross purposes with either/both the Cloud Nomads and/or the Shishigui
The Twelve Star Confederation seems to agree with the Shishigui with at least one of these and possibly two of these, but disagree with at least one of these. However, if the Cloud Nomads agree with the Shishigui that they have a common purpose, then disagreeing with the Shishigui that they do not need to be at cross-purposes is internally inconsistent. It makes little sense to agree that they have a common purpose but disagree that they need not be at cross-purpose. This means that if the Cloud Nomads agree that the Shishigui have a common purpose with the Cloud Nomads, then to be internally consistent they would have to agree that they need not be at cross-purpose. This means that the only statement left to disagree on is that The Empire is at cross-purpose with them. Given their own intentions to attack the Empire, disagreeing that the Empire at cross-purpose seems extremely unlikely to the point of faintly ridiculous.
However, agreeing that they need not be at cross-purposes does not necessitate that they have a common purpose with the Shishigui. Agreeing to leave each other alone is a perfectly acceptable outcome from agreeing that they need not be at cross-purposes but disagreeing about common purpose. Additionally, even if the cloud nomads agreed that they need not be at cross-purposes and that they have a common purpose, the only statement left to disagree on is that The Empire is at cross-purpose with them, which still is just as unlikely due to reasons discussed above.
It seems likely, then, that the only thing we can be sure of is that the Cloud Nomads would agree that the Empire is at cross-purposes with either/both the Shishigui and/or the Cloud Nomads. Which leaves either 1 or 2 to be the point of disagreement. However, we have already discussed how agreeing with statement 1 pretty much necessitates agreeing with statement 2, but agreeing with statement 2 does not necessitate agreement with statement 1.
This leaves the most likely points of agreement to be agreeing on statement 2 and 3, or simply agreeing with only statement 3. And if the Cloud Nomads do not agree with statement 1, then it becomes difficult to make an argument that an agreement of assistance has been reached.
There is, of course, the more holistic approach where parts of the different statements are disagreed to. But if even part of Statement 1 is disagreed with, an agreement of assistance has not been accepted.
