Not so much slippery slope; more that letting the pig decide that this spirit-blood's not allowed means that other spirit-bloods are also much more likely to be ostracised, as people will take their cues from her (and not from us, as by that point we'll have lost to her). That kinda cuts off a fairly important potential chunk of the market, especially since on average they have higher talent than normal people.
Yeah...
but we don't actually really know how common (specifically unsanctioned) spirt bloods are. It might be, essentially, saying "Other people, of which I can point to no examples because insofar as I know my friend is somewhat unique, might also hypothetically get excluded in the future" which doesn't sound like a super strong argument to me.
I suspect a wider point about spirit bloods in general would be well received.
That said, beyond words or resources the real question is what actions and agenda* we can offer him in turn.
*He very much seems to be the type of fellow to believe in "here's what I want, here's what you want, how do we align our incentives?" As such, we should consider here is what do we want? Not just in terms of leaving our friend alone, but in terms of overall patterns of goals we are likely to pursue.
One talent we have and should emphasize is that we're very
very good at moving money around. It's literally what we do every single week. Piles of money, spirit stones, etc. Coupled with our panache for gambling, we're uniquely suited to ... what's the economic term I'm looking for? Vastly increase liquidity.
A couple of appeals we can make to join our "faction" (In so much as it is, in fact, a collection of comfy pillows).
1. We know of a better pill refiner then those who work at that gaudy pavilion in the center of town. Introductions could be made.
2. We have made connections with older Outer Sect disciples, connections which through traditional means would be closed off to newer inner sect members. Introductions could be made which will open closed gates for more connections with a plethora of others.
3. Appeal to his resonance of connections and improving society - drawing in examples of the blacksmith, apothecary, and factory workers. Another possible analogy is that of a net; the more knots in a net that have connections to other knots, the better the net is at being a net. Just so, society is like a net, the more people there are with connections to other people, the better the society. Removing one of the knots in the net due to dislike not only hurts the knot but the integrity of the entire net.
Likely appeals that Liu Lifen likely made
1. Wealth - spirit gems is a commodity that she seems fairly free in spending. Unlikely to hold much weight due to his own wealth, and he is more concerned about the connections anyway.
2. Connections with other prominent out sect disciples - much more of a dangerous asset Liu Lifen can use to get him on her side. We can counteract this by mentioning our connections with already established Outer Sect Disciples that would normally be closed to him.
3. Tradition and duty - An argument that they need to protect the Empire from dangerous outbreaks of the spirit blooded. Unlikely to be a decisive factor in his decision, but can be undermined with the correct analogy to the factory workers and how improving their options and connections decreases their need to seek alternative means of achieving their desires.
This is certainly doable, which is fantastic news for us (3 out of 4 high nobles on one side of the fence makes it harder for the 1 noble to maneuver effectively).
In terms of your appeals:
1.) I doubt he cares, really. One artisan pill refiner is interesting on an individual-cultivation level, but simply not a macroeconomic force.
2.) Possibly interesting to him.
3.) Likely most interesting to him, but should probably be phrases as pillows and/or nap locations because of the speaker.
In terms of Liu's potential offers
1.) He doesn't
want money - he wants money to be
spent. He doesn't really care who's buying what as long as people are voluntarily participating in the market. We should assume Liu is as insightful as we are - what ways would she be offering to wield her wealth in his interests?
2.) I suspect what he really wants is to find a way to not be in
either faction, since he wants to maximize relationships/trade, the existence of two competing factions is a huge detriment to him in the first place as it artificially closes off avenues of capital exchange that would otherwise exist. Beyond connections, I suspect he'd rather we
not be a faction, because that creates barriers he doesn't want, and is probably a better place to approach the conversation from then head-counting up each side.
3.) I doubt he really cares about the tradition/duty arguments - at least beyond giving them the appearance of consideration necessary for his station.
