Natural spirit springs still not claimed by anyone will have certain defensive mechanisms in each area before anyone can confidently say that this resource is mine.
Evidently, such defensive mechanisms varied in strength, if it's a small-sized spirit spring, then the defensive mechanism will allow even people at the soul palace cultivation realm to claim them.
However, if the spirit spring was a large-sized one that could generate enormous resources with every rotation, then its defensive mechanism will be impossible to breach for even the likes of emperors.
At this moment, Abaddon deduced that this spirit spring was but a small-sized resource, or else, it wouldn't have been claimed by anyone yet. And he only was confident of that train of thought cause he never believed that someone in the realm of the emperor will be in such a weak world, and even the world itself will not permit him to stay there.