SSC CHSL 2025 PYQ — Question 11

In the given passage, some words have been deleted. Read the passage ssage intently and choose the most appropriate option to fill in each blank:
The used bookstore was not merely a location where one might purchase books; it was a refuge. The air was thick with the earthy, rich smell of paper and dust, an odd fragrance which was at once soothing and (1) _________. I would spend hours there, running my fingers over the spines of ancient, forgotten books that stood on the shelves. Each novel was another world to discover, and I finally removed a leather-bound book with an odd, yellowed title. Its pages were dry and (2)__________. to the touch, as if one careless turn would make them disintegrate. As I picked up to read the opening lines, the words didn't merely speak a tale-they whisked me off to a whole different world, a place of magical creatures, gallant heroes, and secret spells. The vocabulary was old-fashioned, but impossibly (3)_________, describing gaudy pictures in my head that were more real than the creaky aisles surrounding me. I was amazed by the imagination of the writer, a well that was presumably truly (4)_________.  I felt a rush of awe, an appreciation that these tales, as ancient as they were, remained supremely (5) _________  and capable of igniting the imagination of a new generation.
What should come in the place of blank number 3?