Tree Topology is required for cabling
A cable is several wires grouped or wrapped in a sheath.
AC mains power requires cabling is done in a Tree Topology. Meaning unlimited branches are permitted, but different branches are not allowed to re-connect to each other, forming a loop. So if you diagrammed your cable diagram in MS-Paint, and used the "paint bucket" tool on any empty space in the canvas, it must fill the entire canvas.
We're in electronics stackexchange, so I'll lede with Why a tree toplogy? Current flows in loops. Electrical codes require that in any cable, current flow be equal and opposite - thus any current which flows up a "branch of the tree" must come back that same branch (not hop to another branch and return via a different route).
Why is "Equal and opposite" required? Because AC power throws a considerable dynamic magnetic field - after all, that's how transformers work. Get it? It's not "a refrigerator magnet" like in DC. It's "a refrigerator magnet that is spinning". As long as wires are grouped, these magnetic fields will substantially cancel each other out. If not, it will induce heating and vibration into nearby metallic things, including the wires themselves. Vibration is a problem because copper and aluminum do not have a fatigue limit so all movement adds to fatigue. The wire cracks, the cross section is reduced so you get localized heating, or it breaks entirely and you get series arcing, making spectacular amounts of heat and starting fires. Indeed North America now mandates Arc Fault Circuit Interruptors (AFCI) which have a digital signal processor "listening" for that "crinkle crunch" of arcing.
Implementation of Tree Topology
Of course... a "vine" is one type of "tree". A very boring one lol.
In some countries, "vine" is used simply because the cheap (50 cent) receptacles provide double terminals (one for "power coming in" and the other for "power going onward"). Of course, the spec grade ($2.50) receptacles provide quad terminals, making tee or plus splits easy.
Use of the receptacle to splice is only a convenience; "pigtail" splices are preferred, and have no limit - one popular splice block has eight ports. Realistically you hit "box fill" limits, but this is Electronics StackExchange, and that's boring LOL.
