[Ghostwater] Why were they so weak?

Seeing that Lindon went to truegold in just 2 years( yeah he had help from even the monarch but) why were the elders in sacred valley so weak when the rest of the continent has everybody atleast gold. If everyone else in the world becomes atleast gold, those people should also have advanced just by cycling even without much resources, don't you think? And how did they kill that sage, where did the poison come from? There was that gate but seeing how Lindon couldn't even look at archlord level pills, how did the jades use it?