Pan Long had heard of Spirit Roots. It was said that one school among the immortal sects believed cultivation depended on tempering and nurturing one's Spirit Root, helping it grow until life itself evolved.
According to that school, a person's aptitude was fixed at birth. Only those with Spirit Roots could achieve anything through cultivation; for those without them, every effort was wasted.
No theory conjured out of thin air could become popular. Every theory widely accepted by people rested on facts, and the theory of Spirit Roots was no exception.
Since ancient times, people had noticed vast differences in the results of cultivation. With roughly the same effort and resources, some cultivated successfully, while others saw little progress.
To call it a difference in aptitude made little sense. Everyone had hands and feet, sound bodies, and no obvious difference in Wisdom. How could their aptitude for cultivation differ so drastically?
Some people, in particular, could never achieve much no matter how they cultivated. They might work themselves half to death or consume enormous resources, yet at best they would take the first step, then remain stuck there forever.
The theory of Spirit Roots had been proposed to explain this and had once gained widespread acceptance.
But that theory had long since become outdated.
Later cultivators had found ways for those supposedly "without Spirit Roots" to succeed. With the aid of spiritual medicines, their own hard work, and techniques suited to their constitutions, enough time and Hua could give them respectable Spirit Roots.
Such people might fall short of those with outstanding natural gifts, but their results were not inferior to ordinary cultivators'. They could even do better.
Faced with ironclad facts, the theory of Spirit Roots quickly lost favor. Few people still worried over it. Even members of the