While Saint As was attempting his breakthrough inside Ye Han's Purple Cauldron Space, he used a special forbidden art: he actually split his divine soul, divine sense, Nascent Soul, and physical body into four separate entities, each attempting its own breakthrough to the Void Refinement Stage.
The advantage of attempting a breakthrough this way was that the heavenly tribulation could not locate his true presence. Since each part attempted its breakthrough separately, he was not truly advancing to the Void Refinement Stage, so no heavenly tribulation was triggered...
Once his divine soul, divine sense, Nascent Soul, and physical body had all advanced to the Void Refinement Stage, Saint As used a Restrictive Spell to fuse them back together, becoming a Void Refinement Stage cultivator.
This allowed him to evade the heavenly tribulation, but while avoiding it was an advantage, the drawbacks were considerable. First, the process was extremely dangerous. Second, advancing without undergoing a heavenly tribulation had indeed left his lifespan unchanged.
In other words, Saint As now possessed the cultivation of the Void Refinement Stage, but not its lifespan.
His situation was much like Ye Han's. Ye Han had also advanced through several major realms without undergoing heavenly tribulations, so his lifespan had not increased accordingly. This had all but become a thorn in his heart.
Cultivators practiced Immortal Arts, risked their lives searching for all kinds of Heavenly Treasures, and braved nine chances of death for one chance of survival to break through to higher realms, all to extend their lifespans and gain a chance to advance toward the Great Dao, becoming immortals who would live forever.
Without the increased lifespan, wasn't that the same as giving up the greatest benefit of advancing one's cultivation?
Saint As had told Ye Han that he only needed to advance to