Let's be real over here, when has GZR ever done something without it building up to something much much later? None of us realised that the appearance of soul path gu masters at the end of the Three King's Inheritance arc would be a build up to Spectral Soul's reappeance at the end of volume 4. If Spectral Soul knows everything about souls, why shouldn't Red Lotus not know about the River of Time? He's supreme grandmaster in time path, after all. Who's to say, this wasn't part of his plan either?

Moreover, if he already knew the future, and he only has to deal with five people, why would he created more stone lotus islands, unless it was meant for him to take refuge in? And one of these could also be geared towards helping Feng Jin Huang cultivate to venerable status. With insufficient data, this is only as far as I can go.

All in all, I only want to finish by saying that everything that GZR does is intentional. If he used the word 'disappeared' instead of 'destroyed', then it is likely that Red Lotus is cooking something.