Qin Ye was thanking the heavens that the second King Yanluo had the foresight to set up the Array of the Nine Gods.

Otherwise, if these death gods got a glimpse of the internal state of the Cathayan Underworld, they would definitely immediately turn and leave.

A strategic partnership was a unique relationship between countries.

The categories of relationships between nations consisted of partnership, comprehensive partnership, collaborative partnership, comprehensive collaborative partnership, strategic partnership, strategic collaborative partnership, comprehensive strategic partnership, and comprehensive strategic collaborative partnership. 

An example in the mortal realm was the Europa Union, the constituent nations of which had comprehensive strategic partnerships. The fact that the word "collaborative" was missing from the partnerships indicated that the relationships between these countries were not without problems. A nation would consider many factors before establishing such relations with other nations, including factors from the political, economic, military, scientific, technologic, and geographic spheres.

To put it in simpler terms, there was some friction between them, but they could still communicate with one another amicably.

As for Cathay, it had an exhaustive strategic partnership with Germany, and the "exhaustive" part of the partnership went a step beyond even "comprehensive".

An exhaustive partnership alluded to one that was omnidirectional...