First off, I will propose, again, what this argument is meant to support. This argument will be based on the belief that archery and music are not mutually exclusive, and in fact that they can support each other. Furthermore, the argument will be made that getting long ranged archery arts is the best way to leverage Ling Qi's natural abilities in archery and music as well as provide a large strategic advantage in any "war" that Ling Qi would be a part of.
To begin, it would be necessary to define a couple of the key terms that will be used in this post. Notably, Strategic and tactical. This is not an argument for whether these definitions are the correct definitions, and this section is devoted to clearing up misunderstandings and create a uniform understanding of what this post refers to when it uses those terms. Strategic refers to the creation or destruction of advantages or disadvantages before a battle begins. Tactical refers to the creation or destruction of advantages or disadvantages during a battle.
This distinction is important, as it helps to clarify what is meant when this post refers to a character as either a strategic asset (Fu Xiang) or a tactical asset (Ji Rong). Or, in the case of Ling Qi, a mixture of both. The reason why Ling Qi is a mixture of both strategic and tactical assets is that she can create/destroy advantages and disadvantages before a battle even begins as well as during the battle. Her strategic side comes into play during stealth and larceny missions in order to scout out the opponent, steal critical supplies or information, or do some other dastardly thing in order to destroy the opponent's advantages while creating advantages of her own. Her tactical side comes into play due to the variety of ways Ling Qi has in boosting up allies and debuffing the enemy. (notably FVM, TRF, FZ)
What this means for Ling Qi, however, is that she can be the sole determining factor in whether a mission is a success or a fail (see Sun Liling's fortress assault) and ideally, we want arts that can support this quality of Ling Qi's. So, how does super long ranged archery support Ling Qi's bid for tactical and strategic supremacy? Well first, we need to look at what Ling Qi does really well tactically, and that is the creation of a domain in which everything that is "hers" is buffed to exceedingly good levels while everything not "hers" is debuffed into the ground. In other words, the creation of a domain. (See FVM, FZ, TRF, AE, and other heart arts)
There is one critical flaw with domain control people, and that is they need to get people to be inside the domain that they control. For Ling Qi, this is not a particular problem as most people seem to fight within her domain already. However, we don't have very many options to force a person to come into our domain of control other than running at them very fast. This has a couple of problems, first off this gives them the opportunity to turn around and engage us first, where we want to be the first ones to engage. Secondly, it allows them, if they are clever enough, to choose ground to fight us in of their own choosing. Now, before we got the music meridian, I would have said that we would be at a significant disadvantage in a howling blizzard which dashes our FVM before we can really get it going. I now, admittedly, have difficulty in thinking of unfavorable ground for us to fight in, but I can think of some ground that would significantly favor us. (a field of stone spires comes to mind).
With that in mind, what does archery do to help us establish our domain of control? Well, like every long ranged piece of equipment, archery helps dictate when and where a battle will take place. If the example of artillery may be used, the person with artillery forces the other person to either A) stay where they are and die, B) retreat, or C) engage the person with artillery on that person's terms. What this means for us is that with super long ranged archery, we can force a person to choose one of those three options. (unless that person also has super long ranged archery, in which case the 4th option, duel at long range, becomes an option for the both of us).
This also solves the problem of attempting to use music and archery simultaneously for a fight as we simply do not use the bow when the individual enters the area of which we will begin asserting control. While any of the options would be available to a person, our speed makes running away from us a tricky, if not an impossible, proposition while standing still and taking the arrows is not a logical winning condition for our opponent. Archery would be used to draw an opponent into a fight, while music would be to create the domain of control that we love fighting in. In this method, we will be able to force our targets to confront us without having the risk of chasing them down. This ability to force a fight also leads back to the earlier subject, strategic and tactical uses.
By forcing an opponent to fight us, we will be able to choose the ground that the fight is on, and perhaps even prepare the ground beforehand with formations or find an appropriate environment where our strengths come out in full force while the opponent's weaknesses are enhanced. In this way, we would be making strategic decisions in order to best realize our chances at winning the battle while forcing the opponent to abandon their strategic position to deal with us, both creating an advantage for us while destroying an advantage of the opponents. Tactically it helps us by forcing the opponent to waste time and qi reaching us before they can deal with us, creating a disadvantage in them by forcing them to fight us with lower qi and possibly lower health.
However, this means that we won't be using our bow when our domain is set up. This reduces the need to juggle weapons around and allows us to simply wear down the opponent with debuffs and music. While this would remove our one big finisher, AC is providing an excellent melee tool to use for dealing direct damage to a target within our domain reducing our need for a strong damage dealer as a finisher.
While going for super long ranged archery does have it's drawbacks (ie, inability to use archery for a strong finisher) the ability to dictate where a fight will be, while also solving the juggling of weapons problem that trying to use both music and archery in mid/close range, more than make up for such drawbacks. If asked whether we should consider archery in this sense a primary priority or a secondary priority, I would answer secondary. A super long ranged archery art would be meant to supplement and enhance a domain controllers ability to force people to enter their domain and thus entrap people in the territory of their own choosing.
