Unlike real life, old age is not necessarily a drawback in wuxia fiction...at least not until a certain point. At the end of ROCH, for example, senior Greats East Heretic Wong Yerk See, South Monk 1 Deng, and Central Mischief Chow Bak Tung, each in or approaching his eighties, were much more powerful fighters than they had been twenty, thirty, forty years earlier (deeper inner power plus greater experience). North Hero Gwok Jing, at or nearing his sixties, was just hitting his peak years (for average people, sixty would be past one's prime), and in HSDS, Cheung 3 Fung was better than ever at 100.
Wuxia elites, powerful and great as they were, were not immortal. There had to be a point when the natural infirmities of old age (slowing reflexes, reduced stamina, more brittle bones, failing senses, etc.) outweighed deepening inner power and experience. But what was that point? Did any of the Greats live long enough to see their martial arts actually *decline* due to age?