No matter if one had Spiritual Roots or not, or even the best ones if one wanted to embark on the journey of cultivation, the said person needed to awaken them in order to set foot in the world of cultivation.
It was akin to a seed which unless was given some water or moisture to germinate, no matter how good the plant might turn out to be after, it was nothing but a seed, which might even die and would never germinate if not given the proper conditions.
Likewise, the same was true for Spiritual Roots.
In the case of the Spiritual Roots, one had to be around some Spiritual Qi, in order to awaken them, the amount would depend on the concentration of the Spiritual Qi present, or the Spiritual Roots themselves.