Ranking wise, I am not sure Ji Rong will necessarily overtake us in the next few turns.
From my reading, he previously was more mono-focused than Ling Qi and I don't think you can push through the ranks by going pure face puncher.
Even more, we have seen him researching, in the library (... admittedly, that did seem to end in face-punching, too...). I suspect he is trying to broaden his skill set and bring other skills up to par for challenges. Similar to what we are doing.
For Kang Zihao, I don't know if he has the chops for much more. So far, he has impressed exactly no one. He is from a Count-tier family close to the Empress, but there are other Count tiers around. He's certainly a great Cultivator, talented and powerful, but that is literally everyone in the Inner Sect. Maybe he'll stall out. On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't and actually pulls ahead in the next few turns.
Yan Renshu is also interesting. I believe he *does* have the chops to be fairly successful in the Inner Sect and raise further, quickly. At least for a while. On the other hand, Wen Cao (or whatever his name was) hasn't forgotten about him. Direct suppression in the Inner Sect isn't allowed, but Mr. I-use-pretty-shady-books-and-upset-everyone doesn't exactly have many friends or good will from the faculty and I am pretty sure if Wen wants hard enough he can screw with Renshu to some degree. So I suspect Yan Renshu won't have an ideal time.
The current rankings of our friends/contacts are pretty amusing, though. I guess Meizhen and Liling will continue with their, ahhh... 'friendly competition'. I wonder if Meizhen will challenge Liling directly? It would be a pure grudge match, their rank difference is literally minimal. And Liling might have prepared a new (temporary) trump card if Meizhen does that, purely for prestige. So, I don't think it would be a good move from Meizhen. She still has the reputation from 'crushing' Liling in the tournament, that should serve her better.
... And I have no idea what's up with Xuan. I guess he finished a major project and then challenged high? And got a favourable match up? Very impressive jump. We should ask him and take notes :3
Incidentally, that means that huge jumps in rankings might be rare, but aren't unheard of so it's "fine" if we don't challenge for a few turns, build our strength and then suddenly challenge 50 ranks higher.