I'd disagree
I'd disagree. I'd argue that she went for a ruthless strike on Ling Qi during that fight because Ling Qi's technique was preventing one of her trumps from functioning. "Take out the relatively squishy control that's preventing me from beating face" is a fairly standard combat tactic, and Sun Liling rarely seems to pull her punches.
Ling Qi is probably Sun Liling's #3 target, not #2.
1. Cai Renxiang. No disputing it, this is the person who organized the enemy faction that broke hers, views her with contempt and is generally her obstacle to proving herself the strongest among the outer sect. She probably also holds her at least partially responsible for all the actions of those 'under' her, from Gan Guangli to Ling Qi to maybe even Bai Meizhen, depending on how she views Meizhen's and Renxiang's relationship.
2. Bai Meizhen. The one who could most likely contest for her for strongest in a vacuum. Also hereditary enemies - although it's not (yet) all that personal on her part.
3. Ling Qi. Particularly by the tournament, a Green who has foiled her plans many a time. Not a threat in a tournament setting (Ling Qi hasn't done better than "not die instantly and managed to flee" against her), but particularly if she accepts Renxiang's she'll be a focal point for "show superiority over the Cai heiress".
4. Gan Guangli. Mostly would be a target because he's Renxiang's man, would slide under Ling Qi due to the latter's getting under Liling's skin and probably sooner Green cultivation level.
"Survive" is panicking. Ling Qi almost certainly will survive - a tournament is supervised, she's not a realm or worse below and she's got quite a good bit of damage mitigation. Killing or maiming would almost certainly need to be deliberate - and also very obviously so (which is equally important). In front of not just the sect elders, but a wide range of notables from across the Empire. And that's assuming she *could*; if Ling Qi herself wasn't able to get off the stage (extremely likely), use her escape talisman (always an option), call surrender and get a judge to intervene or the like, I wouldn't be surprised if Meizhen didn't interrupt.
She had a realm (two stage, even - so +4 auto-successes) on Ling Qi and wasn't able to disable her before Ling Qi fled. More than once, even. Decrease that advantage by simply the evening of the realms and I'd rate her making a kill-shot on Ling Qi as extremely unlikely.
Now, beating is a different story. So how would the cultivation stack up between the two? Well, Ling Qi is going to be Green/Bronze, and might be able to hit Green 2/Bronze 2 - Liling herself managed it in about three months, so it's potentially doable. Liling is going to be Green 2/Bronze 2 and might be able to hit Green 3/Bronze 3; I expect the time-to-advance curve to start spiking soon, but I don't know if it's going to spike that soon. So Ling Qi is looking at anywhere between even and being at a 2-stage disadvantage. That's not a pleasant disadvantage, but not insurmountable.
Ling Qi also gets +1 cultivation stage when using woodwinds - which helps both FVM *and* 'basic' flute attacks, as I understand it. That helps part of her offense a bit - although Sun Liling might have a similar specialty, which could tilt some contests the other way.
If you stripped away cultivation, I'd still give an edge to Sun Liling - she's probably got a peer or superior art setup and peer or superior equipment... along with likely a die or two on Ling Qi for base dice pools in combat. We'll see, of course - I don't actually know how hard Liling trains (we've only seen her in 'live' combat or the anticipated training-by-beating of Ji Rong) or what she trains in. Does she feel cultivation and aggression is enough? Does she prize 'mundane' skill?
In short - Sun Liling probably beats Ling Qi if they face off in the tournament. But Ling Qi probably is able to endure for a few rounds and make a good showing before losing without a lot of cost. Ling Qi does have an outside shot though - some bad luck on resisting Green Art-level debuffs and Liling could get spiraled down into a loss. Or if Ling Qi endures and starts to tap Liling out of qi (particularly if she can prevent her from recuperating), that could also lead to a win. Both not likely though.
