The old master having planned everything sounds kinda bullshit. How far he could see should still be pretty limited considering that we know in at least one timeline he failed big time. Unless you are trying to say that they were doing some kind of 4d chess and was ok with sacrificing Qi Zhan of one timeline to help the Qi Zhan of another.
Also if we were to assume that he was able to plan everything that means he also planned on is him being revealed that for all of his disciples to be revived.