Meng Chao had heard Lü Siya mention a thing or two about the origins of the Nine Great Cultivation Families.
In fact, before Dragon City crossed over, Earth in the twenty-second century had already entered the post-industrial, even post-Information Age. Society as a whole had become severely fragmented and atomized.
Traditional great families had long since fallen apart, and households had grown ever smaller. Even with four generations under one roof, grandparents and grandchildren combined would amount to at most seven or eight people, no more than ten.
With generations producing only a single heir, it was difficult for so-called "great families" to emerge.
However, after Dragon City crossed over, it was hit in succession by floods, viruses, zombies, and monsters. Social order collapsed, returning to the blood-colored era where the weak were prey to the strong and only the fittest survived.
During those lawless and brutal years, the importance of blood ties—or rather, Lineage—gradually came to the fore once more.
Those Supreme Experts who had been the first to awaken Superhuman Power, the first to grow strong, and the first to seize the vast majority of survival resources could often win the favor of dozens or even hundreds of members of the opposite sex, spreading their genes as ancient emperors did, or as the sole male lion in a pride did.
Even Supreme Experts who kept their distance from the opposite sex and cared only about tempering their bodies day and night often had seven or eight, even ten or so children.
For Supreme Experts keen on multiplying their descendants, having children in the double digits was commonplace.
The problem was that even if they began working day and night to spread their branches and leaves from the moment they awakened Superhuman Power,
a child carried for ten months