The four families' candidates started fighting and after every match the candidates has to go back to recover, at least the candidates who won every battle went back to recover as soon as possible, because, they are all aiming for the Future-heir position.
Sanjay was appointed as the future-heir when he was just a Novice. Since then, they have been competing, but they weren't able to go anywhere near winning.
The place was just so close yet so far out of reach. Sanjay is like a huge abyss they have to cross, if they want to fulfil their desire, but they are just not capable enough to do so.
But no one gave up. They tried to compete for any chance they got. Of course, there are only so many occasions where they can compete for that and the family meeting is one of them.
So, every grand realm cultivator in core disciples who are of same age as Sanjay are trying their best to recover.