Probably because you said stuff like let's stop doing base cultivation altogether once you reach Mid-Yellow, which is, of course, going to get the thread in a tizzy. It was a bad argument because you should be doing some sort of base cultivation every week, but the thread has been perfectly willing to drop some of the base cultivation at certain times to move toward a goal it considered important. The key is "at times" rather than "all the time."
Mid-Yellow is going to be done in 2-3 weeks, but in practice, the cultivation actions will stabilize mainly after Week 19 because the only thing it'll need is an arm or lung meridian open in Week 20, depending on what was opened in Week 19.
My own view is that Ling Qi *should* slow down. She's been pushing base cultivation and rising up to the top slots... and doesn't have the support behind it to deal with conflicts with peers. The primary thing other movers and shakers will look at when evaluating her is going to be her cultivation - and they'll expect everything else to match up. Look at how Han Jian assumed that Ling Qi knew more than she actually did, or consider her relative combat prowess when fighting beside Gu Xiulan, at about equal cultivation. If she fights those 'beneath' her cultivation, unless they've got significant numbers, she's expected to win - and win handily. If she fights those on her level, she's expected to at least make a good showing of herself. Those at her cultivation level are going to challenge her, perhaps try and remove her as a threat. Those above her cultivation level won't take her as a serious opponent and are unlikely to do more than sideways schemes against her... unless, of course, they think she's
about to reach their level and may surpass them.
Bai Meizhen is, admittedly, at peak Yellow. However, her statements suggest she thinks Ling Qi is quite behind where she should be, in spite of the latter's rapid cultivation speed. The threats to Ling Qi are going to be at about her cultivation level more often than not* - if she's weak for her cultivation level, then she'll suffer for it. Moreover, her fast rise makes her a more urgent threat to those like Kang Zihao. Her hitting mid-Yellow/mid-Silver is going to probably lead to some moderately drastic action (ambushing her during missions, attempting to lure people into attacking her, trying to frame her for breaking Lady Cai's rules); her hitting either late-Yellow or late-Silver within a couple months will probably spark a
last-ditch effort to halt her progress.
She needs more attributes and skill progression. She needs more progress in combat arts. She needs a spirit beast. She needs to push EPC up to soft-cap. She needs improvement in areas that are far harder for her potential threats to evaluate, and which give her broader capability than "more successes in combat". It's tempting to try and push for the more dice higher cultivation levels provide, but that just leads to an endless cycle of focusing entirely on Spirit and Physique - because there's *always* going to be a higher cultivation level to go for.
I would strongly suggest that she hit mid-Yellow... and then either spend a single action a week on spirit or physique or rely on overflow or bonus progress from drugs for a while. Spend a month or two opening meridians, soft-capping her combat arts and pushing EPC as far as it can go. As she runs low on things to work on, she switches back to pushing Physique and Spirit to late realm. On hitting late realm, an even mixture of base cultivation and arts will probably be just fine, and then she can fill out all her preparation for breakthrough and start accumulating arts until she's out of meridians to fill and qi until she's satisfied.
And then break through to Green and Bronze within a couple weeks of each other with a strong stable base to support her cultivation.
* This is a
significant trope seen in xianxia. To a greater or lesser extent, threats scale to the "cultivation level", and the protagonist often only wins because their combat capability is abnormally high for said cultivation level. While this is narratively driven for the most part, it's actually often literally encoded into the social rules of the setting.
You have the "junior generation" and the "senior generation", with proper competitions held between those of the same generation. You have actual restrictions on competitions and mystical sites based on either age or cultivation realm. You have social mockery for someone of a higher cultivation level challenging someone of a lower cultivation level.
EDIT: Ling Qi's able to get away with being a bit of a "paper tiger" due to her only recently rising into Silver and Yellow, the 'stability' enforced by the #1 powerhouse, her strong alliance with the #3 and because most of those in the "small pond" at or above her cultivation level are neutral or favorable towards her.
That will likely change. Kang Zihao will probably find some way to bring to her a fight - either a hidden ambush or setting up an attempted "righteous challenge". If her cultivation reaches his, he'll likely think it acceptable to just issue a public challenge under the guise of "exchanging pointers". Before that happens, she should be able to take him - and he's almost certainly got a strong advantage in mastery of arts and skills over her at present.
