The first grand stage of the Chosen King Competition—Everworld—began to instill degrees of intense competition, savagery, and desperation within the participants. Every Chosen King Competition had deaths, and these deaths often led cultivators to be abnormally safe and vigilant after each Chosen King Competition passed.
The dangers of Everworld had Strength requirements that very, very few could attain. So the priority for most at the time was to survive until the second stage, to group up and find safety in numbers, or a location that has been deemed free of environmental hazards. Typically, this had become common 'meta' amongst Chosen.