It's not asking for the email account's password. It's asking for the Apple ID's password. Might be the same text string, but they are not related or connected. And access to the old email account is not required at all.
If you updated your existing Apple ID on another device to a new email address, you don't need to do anything. Just enter the password for your Apple ID and it should unlock the iPad. Once it connects to the internet it will update the Apple ID to the new email address automatically. You don't need access to the old email address for this. Just the password for the Apple ID.
If you did in fact create an entirely new Apple ID, then you will need to first log in to the iPad and then sign out of the old Apple ID and sign in with the new one.
If you don't remember the password for the old Apple ID, then you will need to use Apple's iforgot service to try to reset it. You may need to contact Apple Support directly and use Account Recovery to reset the password since you no longer have access to that email address that Apple account is using to get the reset emails.
click here ➜ How to use account recovery when you can’t reset your Apple Account password - Apple Support