Um, what? You don't get to be an Elder until you reach 6th realm. Maybe 5th realm at earliest if a minor detail in one of Elder Jiao's interludes hasn't been retconned. There's not a chance in hell Li Suyin is going to reach the 5th or 6th realm in a couple decades, not unless she's been hiding a Sage Emperor/Sun Shao/Cai Shenhua level talent the whole story. Don't get me wrong, she's definitely on the fast track to becoming a very valuable Core disciple in a few years, and she definitely has the potential to become an Elder, but it (that is Elderhood) definitely isn't happening in just 20 years.
As she is right now? Absolutely. Li Suyin is just too meek to have the level of drive needed to grow that quickly regardless of her resources. But it's entirely possible something happens in the future that galvanizes her into pushing herself to grow that strong that quickly. That's why is used the word
chance, I'm deliberately acknowledging that my statement is unlikely but that I consider the point the statement raises to be important enough to state anyway, hyperbole be damned.
Because think about it like this. The sect rankings on the first page, even if they are outdated, showcase the enormity of what the sect is doing. Suyin is listed as 735 of 1000, and is being promoted to the 501-549 range. That's roughly 200 places or
one fifth the entire goddamn scale, including the Core of the sect. Her allowance from the sect? It more than doubled (from 2gss and change to 5gss and change). She now has access to comprehensive lessons from the sect, the first four floors of the sect archives for free, tutoring from major elders like Elder Jiao or Elder Su, can use the contribution points she admitted to
not spending in the update to gain access to cultivation sites. If Li Suyin buckled down and cultivated with the same kind of fervor Ling Qi has, she could probably beat Ling Qi to Cyan.
The sect is clearly already bending whatever rules they have for battlefield promotions already to promote Suyin, because advancing her so far so quickly can be interpreted as an insult to everyone she just jumped over, especially everyone between 550 and roughly 565 who would be angling to participate in the war to jump into the tier Suyin just got promoted to. And while Suyin's actions are strategically important to the sect's military effort, it would not be worth the ruffled feather of so many families if that was her only accomplishment. No, based on current action, I totally expect, if Suyin becomes a sect lifer, to be admitted as a Core Disciple as soon as she hits Cyan or late Green to justify the jump, and yeah I totally could see a fifth realm being made an elder because of a unique specialty, if that specialty is important enough. And what do you know, Li Suyin is the Empire's foremost expert on utilizing the materials of the underground.